Simplified keyboard for Windows.
Modified Windows keyboard.
Posted on 10/18/2002 7:11:50 AM PDT by ru4liberty
From a 1999 email...
At a recent computer expo, Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry to the car industry and stated: "If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving twenty-five dollar cars that got 1000 miles to the gallon."
In response to Bill's comments, General Motors issued a press release stating: If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:
1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash twice a day.2. Every time they repainted the lines on the road, you would have to buy a new car.
3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason, and you would just accept this, restart, and drive on.
4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver, such as a left turn, would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.
5. Only one person at a time could use the car, unless you bought "Car95" or "CarNT." But then you would have to buy more seats.
6. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, reliable, five times as fast, and twice as easy to drive, but would only run on five percent of the roads.
7. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would be replaced by a single "general car default" warning light.
8. New seats would force everyone to have the same size rear end.
9. The air bag system would say "Are you sure?" before going off.
10. Occasionally for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key, and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.
11. GM would require all car buyers to also purchase a deluxe set of Rand McNally road maps (now a GM subsidiary), even though they neither need or want them. Attempting to delete this option would immediately cause the car's performance to diminish by 50% or more. Moreover, GM would become a target for investigation by the Justice Department.
12. Every time GM introduced a new model car, buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.
13. You'd press the "start" button to shut off the engine.
Have a good Friday.
Simplified keyboard for Windows.
Modified Windows keyboard.
3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason, and you would just accept this, restart, and drive on. This happened numerous times with my Chevrolet Celebrity, and no GM or shade tree mechanic could ever figure it out.
5. Only one person at a time could use the car, unless you bought "Car95" or "CarNT." But then you would have to buy more seats. This is a misleading statement also; I remember numerous times when several of us were sitting around playing Leisure Suit Larry. Of course, just like a car, only one person could drive the computer at one time. And just like in the car, everyone of them would tell the driver what to do!
6. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, reliable, five times as fast, and twice as easy to drive, but would only run on five percent of the roads. Don't forget, that only Ralph Nader and other members of the Green Party would be allowed to drive it.
7. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would be replaced by a single "general car default" warning light. This is no longer a true comparison, with all the self-correcting, debugging features put in windows.
8. New seats would force everyone to have the same size rear end. This also isn't a valid comparison, since windows has so many flexible ways for setup.
9. The air bag system would say "Are you sure?" before going off. And don't forget, it would then come back and say afterwards, "Are you really, really sure?"
12. Every time GM introduced a new model car, buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car. This is also no longer valid. As a user, I find it extremely easy to go back and forth between Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows NT, and Windows ME. However, if I were the "mechanic", that's probably not the case, but it's likely not any more difficult than having to work with different GM systems on newer versions of the same cars, or on different models, such as Pontiacs, Cadillacs, Chevrolets, Buicks, and Oldsmobiles.
14. This was not one, but, the service requirements on the automobile would be 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 miles before any parts had to be replaced [The number of error-free calculations made by a computer is phenomenal!]
That said, maybe you can tell me what I'm doing wrong when I'm multi-tasking along and a runtime error 462 pops up bringing things to a screeching halt.
Other times, a browser will just "go dead." Can't be scrolled, no links work, can't even be closed without control-alt-deleting. Then when I click on "end task," it closes ALL my browsers.
What AM I doing wrong?
I have found occasionally that the "self-correcting" features in XP will detect when you have replaced a defective part, and automatically re-install the old part.
What irks me is how Windows grabs RAM and doesn't let go even after the task is completed. Doesn't matter how much you buy, 64 or 256 MB, Windows will hog it all.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.