More Vista Woes

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Now that we can't get XP machines from our suppliers anymore, new employees have been getting Vista Business machines.  This has been problematic in so many ways that just thinking about it gives me a headache.  Here's the running list of issues:

  1. One employee's Vista laptop, Outlook 2007 works for a bit, then starts throwing off "not implemented" errors on send/receive.  Various forum posts tell me to run Microsoft Office Diagnostics, which I did (twice).  The tool found nothing wrong, but Outlook mysteriously works again (for now).
  2. Another employee can't print to the network printer.  We have two other Vista machines that can print to it with no problem.  Near as I can tell, there must be some issue with either Norton or Windows Firewall blocking port traffic.  I've disabled both - still no dice.
  3. Vista keeps switching this employee's workgroup to the default "workgroup," which makes it really difficult for her to, say, see the network.
  4. Firefox works for a bit, then crashes and refuses to boot, saying something to the effect that it's in the middle of some reinstall operation that never seems to complete.  At least the Internet community is somewhat knowledgable about this one.  Evidently, I shouldn't have committed the unpardonable sin of making Firefox 2.0.0.3 my default browser.  I'm on IE for the time being until issues can be worked out.
  5. Adobe Acrobat works fine when I click on a local PDF, but won't run through IE.  I presume this has something to do with all those security tweaks that Microsoft made to IE.
  6. BlackBerry desktop is a big bust.  I'm waiting for a compatible version and avoiding plugging the damned thing into my USB ports on my Vista machine.  I charge it in my truck.  No synching until this is worked out.
  7. Don't even ask about my iPod.  I've heard the horror stories.  All my music is backed up on my NAS server at home, but it takes at least an hour for all that music to travel over the system bus, much less a USB cable.  I'm having nightmares about Vista corrupting my iPod and forcing a reload of all my tunes, videos, games and podcasts.

The first three are business-critical issues, and they need to be solved right away.  The remainder can be dealt with until software developers finish working out any outstanding compatibility issues.

Where Are They Now?

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I have no idea why, but this morning, I kept thinking about some of the regulars on the old O-A List and what they might be doing today.  In particular, there was this lawyer named Mark Welch who used to do a lot of consumer advocacy work, ranting against spam and privacy abuses on a regular basis.  He had a spectacular meltdown on the list one day and I have no idea what he's up to these days. And what about some of the other regulars, like Greg Bulmash, Donna Dolezal Zelzer, Sanford Carr and folks like that?  We should do a "Where are they now?" special.

Productive Weekend

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Despite the weather, I got a lot done this weekend.  Friday night, the hail/ice/rain/snow stopped coming down at around 9 PM and I took the quad for a quick burn around the neighborhood.  That icy snow was so slippery, I had more trouble getting around than I've had with 10 inches of regular snow on the ground.  And there were still cars out!  I cut my ride short to about 15 minutes because there were plenty of idiots out in two wheel drive minivans and sports cars, and they were all sliding out of control into curbs, mailboxes, etc.  I went home after some guy in a minivan high-centered himself on a big snowdrift that had hardened into ice, and he had the nerve to give me a funny look as I rode by.  I wasn't the one lacking big knobby tires, after all... We got some new furniture this weekend, which meant playing musical furnishings with family members.  The old bedroom furniture is out, new furniture is in and I also picked up my old bed from Wading River when I went out there last night for Kim' birthday dinner.

I also managed to get Vista working on my notebook, and I figured out how to import all my old e-mail, which is what was holding me up from fully upgrading.  At least the "new" laptop is a lot faster now.  Just a couple more obscure apps to install and I'll be fully in business.