Silly Software Company! Paradise Is Real!

I got the big 90 minute MS Office update out of the way. Then I went back to the MS update page to see if there was anything more I needed, and it told me I need Service Pack 2. It's 75MB. That's almost four hours on dial-up. So, I see a link where I can order the thing on CD. I fill out the information, click the "order" button, and get an error message saying that I need to fill in a valid city, state and zip code. I check the form I have just filled out and find that I made no mistakes. The city, state and zip code are exactly what I've entered. I try clicking the "order" button again, and I get the same message. As far as Micro$oft is concerned, I live in an invalid place.

This gives me mixed feelings. On the one hand, if I can't order the CD, I'll have to tie up the computer for four hours some night, downloading the update, and I'll have to keep an eye on it because my ISP does sometimes disconnect me during long downloads. Inconvenient. On the other hand, if Micro$oft refuses to acknowledge the existence of Paradise, then it is likely that we will be overlooked when Bill Gates reveals himself to be an alien who is here to take over the world. He can't take over a place which neither he nor his minions know is here, right? So, it looks as though I've traded convenience for safety. When everybody else has been turned into a drone for the new overlords, we in this little, invisible corner of the world will be able to revert to some earlier and more bucolic form of economy and remain free. Thus, I have no intention of informing Micro$oft of their mistake.

I've been opening up some of the programs that came with the computer. I looked at Word. I gave up trying to use the copy of Word that was on Sluggo, because I found it annoying. The new version at least looks nicer than the old one, but I suspect that it will be as annoying to use. I've also got the full version of MS PictureIt! but I haven't tried it yet. I'm accustomed to Irfanview, which is working quite nicely. There's a bunch of other crap, too, most of which I'll probably never use- Micro$oft Works Suite and all that. I think I'm going to have to clean up the desktop by getting rid of the shortcuts to a lot of them. They take up goatloads of real estate. Oh, and there's AquaZone Desktop, too, which haven't fired up. It's the wallpaper and screen saver program with the fishies, I think. That might be nice.

Speaking of programs, Opera 8 was released the other day, and I'm thinking of nabbing it, though the 7.54 I'm running now works fine, except for its issue with mistaking certain JPEG files for HTML files. I don't know if that's been fixed in the new version or not, but I'll probably download it anyway. The company's CEO has said that he will swim from Norway to the US if there are a million downloads of the new version within four days of the launch. Yeah, in the pool of a cruise ship, no doubt. Still, they had 600,000 downloads in the first 48 hours. Help make Jon swim here

The moon was very close to full tonight, and casting the mild light of spring through the ever-denser foliage. Last evening I heard the first crickets of the year. They chirped but briefly, as the air soon grew chill, but I was glad to hear them. Cricket song is one of my favorite springtime sounds. Once the nights have warmed a bit, I'll spend some time outdoors, listening to them. Maybe I'll do it while the computer is dealing with that four hour download.

Damp

The sun was watchable on this first warm and muggy day of the year, a pale ball shrouded by silver clouds. Afternoon was filled with the constant chatter of birds, the jays, crows, robins, thrushes, and woodpeckers all chattering at once. The neighborhood sounded like an aviary. Evening brought the first drops of rain, which cooled the air a bit, but it remains damp and clammy even as the fresh scent of wet lawn rises and the soft sound of falling water drifts through my open windows. There will be no singing crickets tonight, nor tomorrow night, as the rain is expected to continue,perhaps through the entire weekend. It will be cooler, though, which will make the mugginess less annoying. The crickets might decide to come into the house to dry off. I'll be careful where I step.

I Hear Music

I've installed the speakers for the new computer, and I'm listening to a CD while on teh Intranets! Sluggo would never let me do that. There's something odd about the speakers, though. They run on DC, and came with an adapter, but the adapter only has a two-prong plug. Everything else in the system has proper three-prong plugs. The plug comes straight out of the adaptor, too, meaning it would have taken up too much space on my power strip, so I've got it stuck directly into the wall socket, like a cordless telephone adapter. I'm sure I will be electrocuted soon, but at least I'll have music to die to.

In other news, the woman who found a finger in her chili at Wendy's put it there herself. Well, rats! If I can't get digital chili, what's the point in going to Wendy's at all?