Oct 05, 1999, 12:05am

I told you these would be coming fast and furious! I told you! Now... today's rant!

I don't hate Microsoft because they are big and evil. Naw. That's too popular. I don't like Microsoft because the company always finds a way to cost me time and money.

Here's a list of the things I hate about Microsoft and its products.

Microsoft tries to set standards, then breaks them on their own. Case in point: any Office upgrade version. Ever notice how Microsoft sets a standard way for doing things, like how buttons look in a program's interface, or how all FILE menu functions are supposed to be similar? Ever notice how Microsoft is the first program on the block to disregard these standard ways and incorporate a new, non standard way of doing things? Take the File/Open dialog box for a typical program. Select File from the menu, pick open, and you get the familiar Windows 9x rectangle that lists files, gives directory options, and basically operates as a mini-windows explorer interface.

Then there's Microsoft with their supposedly "enhanced" file open dialog box. Slow, pokey, buggy, crash prone in Office 97 Pro (at least), I dread each time I press that file open dialog.

Another thing I hate about most Microsoft programs is the "let us handle the chores, we know better" kind of programming attitude that is totally immersed in most of their products. Like for instance - ever notice when you install Windows, and if you deselect "Internet Services" or whatever the option is for loading National ISP programs onto your system, it still does? That damned "online services" folder STILL shows up on your desktop. Same thing with the MSN setup icon. I hate the freaking thing.

How about that "Office Helper" crap that they started with Office 97 and continue to this day... taking up valuable screen resources with a stupid animated help bot that once again, supposedly knows more than you do. How about this scenario - you spent two years working in Office, finally get all the settings to your preference (like don't replace my dashes with em or en dashes, thank you very much, and while you're at it, don't automatically underline my www.soandso.com addresses I type in)... finally get all the settings to your liking, then OfficeXX comes out. So you buy, you upgrade, and poof, all your settings, all your customized files, and your default normal.dot file - all gone. HAHAHAHAHAHA!! Start all over again Loser! We are Microsoft, and We know a better way!!

And don't get me started on a program like Front Page, which completely butchers any code I create the moment it is opened up in Front Page. All because Microsoft thinks it knows a better way to write my code. It doesn't and I hate that functionality / attitude.

Which brings me to my latest trials and tribulations. Ask you might know from my last rant, I had to do a bunch of installs over a period of a week, earlier this month. Most of my time was eaten up by Microsoft bugs, quirks and just plain frustration. By far the worst was how Windows 98 stopped my network cards from working. All has to do with how the PCI devices on your system (Plug and Play my ass) are controlled. Normally the computer's system BIOS and PCI controller handle the actual control of PCI cards, assigning them Interupts, and juggling their resources. But Windoze 98 SE has decided, hey, we're Microsoft, we know a better way, and we'll handle those PCI devices, thank you very much.

Unfortunately, no one told the motherboard and BIOS.

What does this mean? Well amazingly enough, most PCI devices on your computer (including sound cards, modems, video cards, etc) will continue to work through the little fight between your BIOS and Windows, but Network cards are especially finnicky... they kind of expect to have exclusive control over their destiny, aka their IRQ settings. They don't like sharing. So the end result is, the two new PCI cards I bought for my new computer system, not a cheap investment, refused to work. Windows and my system BIOS were duking it out, and my cards were the losers.

The only way I could fix it was to stick two legacy ISA cards into my two (and ONLY TWO) ISA slots. I lost many, many hours dealing with this problem. In fact, I directly attribute about 40 hours of my life this month to dealing with Microsoft problems. Thanks Bill.

This wasn't the only problem I had with Billy G.'s latest product for us lowly consumers. I've had to install my desktop system 3 times since I formatted the hard drive for the first time back at the start of September. Both reinstalls were due to a "blue screen of death" at bootup, rendering my computer useless. The latest VxD problem is directly contributed to me installing the update for my Microsoft Intellipoint mouse. As soon as I installed it and did the customary reboot, my computer decided to laugh at me and go blue. I wasn't thrilled.

This is only the tip of the iceberg. I've had far too many frustrations with Microsoft over the years. My biggest peeve of all is Microsoft's constant "we know better than you, so let us show the way" attitude in almost all of their programs. I've always been kind of anti-Mac (I'm opposed to almost anything proprietary), but I hear the new iMac was released today for $999, and hrmmm...

Naw. the Mac's time has come and gone for me. Many of the programs I use day in and day out (like the program I'm using right now, Homesite) are only available for the PC and Windoze, so I guess I'm stuck. A pox on Apple and their proprietary nature of years gone by!

And that's it for now ... till next time, thanks for stopping by!

6 comments | reply

Mixelania

Photos from Algonquin Park
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Making Snow for the Fortress
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Webiffied

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Fiddlers Green by The Tragically Hip

Around The Bend by Pearl Jam

Here With Me (Rollo's Chillin' With the Family Mix) by Dido

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truffle pigs by Matthew Good Band

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Burundi and Beyond - NY Times
Great article by Peter Meehan - provided some background.

St. Petersburg Times
Side mention in an article about good machines

AP Story on Espresso
Background and information provided

NY Times - Grinders Article
Especially proud of this one - got the reporter to focus on grinders

Globe and Mail
LOL - showing bad reporting, dude says I'm an American-based site!

The Olympian, WA
Talks about my love for the El Sal Siberia Pacamara

Seattle Times - Clover
Interviewed for comments on the Clover brewer

NY Times - How it Works
Background and information for various espresso machines

Time Mag Article
Just a brief mention, article about roasting beans.

NY Times
Front page article about consumers getting into specialty coffee.

Washington Monthly
Quoted reference to what I wrote in an article at CoffeeGeek.

USA Today - Barista Jam
Intereviewed for my thoughts on what the epitome of espresso is.

WSJ Article
The Wall Street Journal has interviewed me 3 times. This is the first time my name got in a story.

Reuters Interview
Interview with Reuters, Jan 2 - this is the USA Today version.

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CoffeeGeek
Launched Dec 22, 2001, this is THE online community for espresso and coffee fanatics.

CoffeeKid Website
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WebMotif Services
My company's site - needs an update!

Amazon WishList
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enGadget
Great gadget site run by the guy who used to do Gizmodo.

Google News
This is how I get my daily news fix.

DPReview Forums`
The most active forums for digital photography online today.

Daily Zen
Need my Daily Zen fix!

Jalopnik
A blog about car stuff. Vroom Vroom.

MoCo Loco
An industrial design blog. Very cool stuff.

Friends and Family Plan

Beata Blog
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Riddla on Flickr
Matt Riddle's flickr account, updated regularly

Irdy Photos
Irdy, my friend from Jakharta, on Flickr

Recent Acquisitions

Canon EF 24-105 f4 L Lens
The best lens I've ever owned. Super sharp and quick.

Canon 5D
A full frame dSLR, with luscious colour reproduction.

Alzo Digital Lights
Some amazing florescent cold lights for product photography

Canon Xsi dSLR
Amazing technology and image quality in a tiny package.

Canon 40D
Latest prosumer camera from Canon - a much better upgrade than the 30D

Fujitsu P1610
Great 2.2lb computer that does most of my travel / writing needs

28mm f1.8 Lens
A great lens for closeup work and full picture photography

Foodsaver Advanced
Finally got the right tools for freezing green coffee.

Canon 50mm 1.4
Most amazing lens I've ever owned. Produces stellar photos.

Canon 10-22mm
Super wide angle (full frame fisheye) zoom for my Canon 20D