Yesterday, I realized that all those folks who have told me in recent days that they never got my e-mails actually never got my e-mails. So I apologize for thinking y’all were technically incompetent or something when it was me all along.
In fact, I’m such a klutz that I haven’t figured out what’s wrong yet, and I’ve got 65 outgoing e-mails just hanging there in limbo in my Outbox in Outlook. Some of them were pretty important messages, too, like the resume I sent out Monday right after talking to someone about an exciting job opportunity. I had sent it out immediately to display my high interest, only to realize last night that it never went out. Like I need this on top of everything else.
I’ve got someone trying to talk me through a solution, and I hope to arrive at one soon. But then I’ll have a new worry — if they all suddenly go out, some of them are really going to confuse people because of subsequent conversations with those people that have rendered the original message superfluous. They’re going to think I’m nuts — Why is he sending me this now?
All I can do right now is post this generic apology to everyone with whom I correspond. Once the e-mail’s back up, I’ll try to follow up with specific explanations to all the affected people. Dang. What a headache. Maybe I should just stick to playing solitaire on computers; I at least understand that…
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My husband has a T-shirt that says
“Linux for development
Palm for portability
Macintosh for productivity
Windows for solitaire”
The techies in the CS department at USC call Outlook a virus. You are warned.
kbfenner – “techies”??? Is that what you call them? That’s like a non-lawyer calling you an “ambulance chaser”. Either way, if you have them do work for you I’m sure the first thing they do is pad your bill.
Just so you have your facts straight, the school of Engineering (which Computer Science is a part of) has been using Microsoft Outlook longer than any other unit on campus… at least 15 years. If it’s a “virus”, why haven’t the “techies” advised the administration to move to a different e-mail platform?
kbfenner, does your husband also have a t-shirt that reads, “I’m with Stupid”?
My husband, PhD in Computer Science calls those with superior skills in technical areas, with admiration, “techies.”
They have. The Computer Science department was forced to move to the Windows platform from Unix (?) when they were merged (sent down the river to Swearingen) ten years ago, from Arts and Sciences. My husband did not make a great impression on his new colleagues from the Engineering side when he failed to show for their meetings– but was redeemed when it was finally revealed that he just wasn’t receiving their emails on the new system. I believe it was Ronnie Dawkins who helped him out. She’s married and has a different name now.
He’s wearing his “Over 700 Scientists named “Steve” agree. Teach Evolution.” He’s listed on it. It’s in honor and memory of Stephen J. Gould.
…and I maintained, when I was forced to use a PC at Nexsen Pruet, that crashed weekly, including during an important closing, that the IT department used as a full employment strategy. My Mac has yet to crash. We have never had a crash in the 21 years I’ve been with my husband and his Apples.
For those are bashing Windows, I suggest upgrading from Windows 3.1 or Windows Millennium Edition. Windows ME was a total piece of crap, but I have had no problems with Windows 2000, Windows XP, or surprise, surprise, Windows Vista!
I also have two Linux systems and a Sun SPARC Solaris system at home running DNS and web servers.
But Microsoft Outlook rocks! I am not talking about Outlook Express. Besides email, which it handles great, it has Calendar, Contacts, and Tasks. I don’t use the Journaling feature that much, only when necessary to keep track of a conversation. I have used Outlook 2000, 2003, and currently on Office 2007. Outlook also has archiving features so one can archive and remove appointments, emails, etc. to a backup file.
I haven’t experienced any problems with Windows or Outlook, so I don’t know what y’all are doing wrong. I recommend keeping things up to date, run anti-virus and firewall software; oh, also keep that up to date. I just wish that my employer used Microsoft Exchange/Outlook instead of Novell GroupWise; they switched from Novell Netware to Microsoft.
I would like to add a Mac to our home network for experience, but it would not be my primary machine; but using the PowerPC chip.
One of these days, I’m going to add the DEC VAXStation to our home network. It’ll run BSD or UNIX instead of VMS.
Ralph,
That would be OpenVMS, not VMS…
the greatest O/S ever created. I owe my career to it.
$ WRITE SYS$OUTPUT “DEC ROCKS!”
Doug,
It was VMS before it was OpenVMS. You must not have any DEC books from the mid 70’s. I have two sets of the 1977-1978 VAX 11/780 three volume set. I also have numerous PDP-11 books from the 70’s.
But, I agree. DEC ROCKS! The DEC VAX instruction set trumps IBM’s 360/370 instruction set.
Doug,
Do you know where I can buy a CD-ROM for a VAXStation II/GPX? I want to install BSD.
Thanks,
Ralph
Pics of my DEC VAXStation II/GPX:
http://twitpic.com/b7d74/full
http://twitpic.com/b7d3l/full
Former coworker was moving. Rescued it from a dumpster.
Ralph,
I know it was VMS before it was OpenVMS. I was just joking a little bit. I worked for DEC on a VAX 11-780 back in the early 80’s. Prior to that, I worked on DECsystem 10’s and DECsystem 20’s as a computer operator in DEC’s Marlboro, MA manufacturing facility. Had my own customized version of the EVE editor on VMS that I used until 1995.
Can’t help you with the CD-ROM, sorry.
Doug,
Sometimes humor doesn’t translate well in text, when it’s wry.
An 11/780 is on EBay: http://www.recycledgoods.com/zoom.aspx?productID=34698
My wife would shoot me. She’s said no more obsolete computers, but she bought the Sun SPARCStation IPX at a salvage sale. A friend was moving and going to toss a DEC VAXStation II and Sun 3/110 to the dumpster, which he gave to me.
Ralph,
If you send me an email to [email protected], I’ll send you the name of a guy who used to work in Field Service in the local Columbia DEC office. He may still be around locally to help you with the CD-ROM search… but I stopped working for DEC in Columbia in 1995.
-dr
I just tossed out a bunch of VMS manuals a month ago. I may still have the Admin Guide.
Some places are still running their businesses on VAX clusters.
I have an AT&T 3B2 300 with Informix 4GL on it, if anyone has a use for it. Those things are still sitting in phone closets, running telecom in office buildings, 24/7 for 25 years.