Dear Bill

I have decided to leave you. It's been a long time, I know, we've done some pretty great things together, and there was so much hope. But over the past several years it's been getting harder and harder to get anything done, and I feel strangled in the relationship. I think the icing on the cake was Office 2007. When you guys decided to hide the little print icon that has been in the upper left hand corner of every Windows application I've ever used for the past 20+ years. It's gone. Then, last week I was needing to switch to "overstrike" mode in a document, which used to be done by pressing the Insert key, and you could see your mode in the bottom of the window (Ins or Ovr). Thats gone too. And I ask myself, how could this be better? How could it be better that I have to learn how to use a word processing system all over again? Then, last week, I get the following instructions for how to go about upgrading to the Service Pack 3 for Windows XP. ****************************** SP 3 Upgrade Notes ****************************** I’ve been looking at the Windows XP newsgroup posts about XP SP3 problems. Here is a Microsoft article on Steps to take before you install WinXP SP3https://wam.maricopa.gov/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://support.microsoft.com/kb/950717(includes numerous windowsupdate.log Error Codes, if encountered during installation) Also, before installing, temporarily disable all real-time protections afforded by your anti-virus application, any anti-spyware applications, and any third-party firewall prior to installing SP3. Enable Windows firewall before you disable a third-party firewall: The machine should never be connected to the internet without an active firewall. Alternatively, disconnect from internet – pull the cable – then disable the 3rd party firewall and enable Windows firewall before reconnecting to the internet. After installing SP3 /and rebooting twice/, check to make sure your real-time protections have been re-enabled; If you disabled a third-party firewall, remember to re-enable it and disable the Windows Firewall. SP2 will go out of support in two years, at which time we will need to have SP3 to get Windows Update patches. Looks like we can stay with XP until 2014, at which time you’ll need to migrate to Mac OS X or Ubuntu. ;) Here are some instructions for removing malware. Phil, you might want to take a look at this. http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_Malware ************************ Wow! **************************** Just this morning it took me over 30 minutes to install the latest Windows Update (which we do monthly). Had to install the Genuine Advantage something-or-other too. At least no reboot this time. I can't wait to tell my Mom how to do this! And one more thing, I'm not sure who put this together (Dell I reckon), but our new keyboards at the office. They now have all this real-estate tied up for multi-media, and you can't tell easily (very dim lights?) if you have caps-lock on or Num-lock on, without looking really close to the damn thing! I don't need to operate my CD player from my friggin keyboard! I'm working here! In conclusion Bill, Somewhere along the way we've lost our focus. We started to look for better ways to solve our customers problems and got lost in the looking, forgetting our customers all together. As soon as we upgrade to .next, everything will be better. Now, it's all about our problems, how we can be better at solving problems. It's about our careers, what technology can do for you! We do technology. I'm beginning to think it's the other way around, technology is doing us! I'm gonna give Steve a call Bill, sorry.

Here's some more from my friend Ryan: OK. Can you tell me why, after years of a clean menu system MS has devolved to the Office ribbon? Now, in Outlook if I want to spell check they have the feature on the Message tab, over to the right. Where is this very same feature in Excel? Oh, on the Review tab, naturally, way over to the left. The same functions are organized under different tab headings in different applications? What freggin’ sense does this make? After years of knowing exactly where every menu/toolbar feature is now they have to change it. Retarded! I wish I knew someone who worked at MS so I could CC them on my rants. It’s one thing to create the ribbon, but at least make it consistent across your product suite. I’d love to meet the genius responsible for this design. OK, done now. Love you too.