We all love to blame stuff on Windows, and Windows does have some major suckage problems. On the other hand, when we see a new Mac that starts up in just a few seconds, we say, "man, my Windows machine doesn't do that." Of course, my Windows machine has MIDI drivers and an external audio interface, and Skype (and the LinkSys CIT200, very cool), and GoogleTalk, an antivirus, a firewall, special mouse drivers (not really), an external monitor which Windows detects correctly with Plug and Play, and all the funky drivers and things that an open architecture requires. Not to mention all the software that is malware, spyware, and just plain "are-you-sure-you-should-be-running-this" ware. Oh and I almost forgot all the servers: MySql (sometimes), SQL (always, although I use it less than MySql), IIS and Apache (sometimes).
Now you might say, "oh no, another defense of Windows" but in fact, that's not where I'm going. My computer has been having problems since last night. And they remind me -- exactly -- of the problems I had about a month ago before I reinstalled Windows. "Windows sucks!", I yelled (not sure how to punctuate that) and 15 hours and several reboots later... Windows still sucks. Or does it? The answer to the problem was -- yes, I wouldn't have guessed it either, and I didn't guess it last time but I did suspect it -- the books on top of my closed laptop (Dell Latitude D620)... so it's a heat problem. The machine heats up because it's on a soft surface where it can't breathe or because it's got stuff on top of it (as was the case last night). And then it MELTS DOWN. And closing Firefox and ZoneAlarm and all the 100 things that iTunes installs and reinstalls every time you wipe them out doesn't help. The only thing that helps is shutting the computer off for a minute, removing the insulating materials, and restarting. Now it's quick as a whip, and it should be since it's got 3GB of memory these days.
Happy again, at least for now. I still think that we'll all be running a virtual OS before Windows is extinct, but that's just me.
Now you might say, "oh no, another defense of Windows" but in fact, that's not where I'm going. My computer has been having problems since last night. And they remind me -- exactly -- of the problems I had about a month ago before I reinstalled Windows. "Windows sucks!", I yelled (not sure how to punctuate that) and 15 hours and several reboots later... Windows still sucks. Or does it? The answer to the problem was -- yes, I wouldn't have guessed it either, and I didn't guess it last time but I did suspect it -- the books on top of my closed laptop (Dell Latitude D620)... so it's a heat problem. The machine heats up because it's on a soft surface where it can't breathe or because it's got stuff on top of it (as was the case last night). And then it MELTS DOWN. And closing Firefox and ZoneAlarm and all the 100 things that iTunes installs and reinstalls every time you wipe them out doesn't help. The only thing that helps is shutting the computer off for a minute, removing the insulating materials, and restarting. Now it's quick as a whip, and it should be since it's got 3GB of memory these days.
Happy again, at least for now. I still think that we'll all be running a virtual OS before Windows is extinct, but that's just me.
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