Windows XP end of support
 

On 2/10/14, 4:59 PM, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 2/10/2014 7:33 PM, F.O.A.D. wrote:
On 2/10/14, 6:31 PM, Boating All Out wrote:
In article , says...


Have you contacted Apple directly via Apple Care? I had a problem
getting the built-in wifi on my new little Canon camera to link up
consistently with my new iMac. I contacted Apple care last week, an
engineer called me, he had a solution that partially worked and said he
would escalate the problem to a development team. He called me on
Saturday to let me know the "team" sent him an email saying it was
working on the problem and might get back to him this week.

I'm beginning to see why the computer-illiterate prefer Apple.
Hand-holding.
I wonder how many people here with Win systems have talked to or
exchanged e-mails with Window tech support.
Not me.


Yeah, right, because Windoze users are all able to code their own device
drivers and wifi hooks and so there's no reason to contact Microsoft.





Who "codes" their own device drivers? The driver typically comes with
the device, is already installed in Windows or can be easily found
on-line. I've noticed that more often than not (especially on the Win7
machine) that when I hook up a new device ... like the flatbed scanner
... Windows automatically detects and loads the driver if it happens to
exist in the device ... or automatically finds the appropriate one (I
assume on the 'net) and installs it. I haven't used a CD supplied with
a device for a long time to load a driver. Plug and Play and it works.

Wi-Fi is duck soup (assuming the recycled equipment from Comcast works).
Even if it doesn't, it's not very difficult to figure out where the
problem resides.

That all said, I've found the same to be true with the iMac ... with the
annoying exception that I've previously bitched about regarding midi
input events.

I talked again today to my recording engineer friend to make sure I am
not missing something somewhere. It appears I am doing everything
correctly as far as the midi device, cabling and midi to USB conversion.
It's exactly what he is doing in his recording studio. Only difference
is that his iMac is the older version and he is running Mountain Lion.
He also is aware of reported problems with Mavericks in the application
important to his livelihood and is holding off upgrading until the
issues are resolved.


I had to write drivers in my last job. Is not real hard. There are a
lot of calls in Visual C and Visual Basic to build the required driver.

Windows XP end of support
 

On 2/11/14, 3:55 AM, F.O.A.D. wrote:
On 2/11/14, 4:11 AM, KC wrote:


Sigh. Yet more problems for Windozes users. Meanwhile, an Apple
software
developer called me this morning to let me know he'd be emailing me a
small test program which he thinks will take care of a minor glitch I
had with a bit of hardware. Oh, he was in North Carolina and spoke
"Americanese." And what did I pay for my copy of Apple Mavericks OS
that
I installed on my laptop? Why...nothing.

Thank you, Microsoft.


This get's funnier and funnier every time.. Now you have a personal tech
guy just to fix a "minor glitch" (aka, lobsta boat) on your "hardware"
(also lobsta boat)... I have been running my machine for years. Got a
video card changed a couple years back, still doing fine. Today I was at
a client running Paint shop Pro, Dreamweaver, Macromedia Flash Maker,
Any video converter, Firefox, Chrome, a text editor, and downloading
movies from the customer computer.... all at the same time while hooked
up to a verison wireless router and doing live edits to his website
adding video and photos... .. No crashes.. I just don't see what the big
deal is with you guys...



Ahh, but you see, Apple products come with first-rate customer care.
When I couldn't get my Canon camera to link up properly over WiFi with
my new iMac, no matter what I did, I called AppleCare and the case was
assigned to one of its contract developers, who made some suggestions
and when they didn't work, he escalated it to a workgroup, a member of
whom called me and emailed a utility to me that Apple has to download
and transmit certain files from my machine. It took two days for the
tech to get back to me with a file he emailed and I loaded. Solved the
problem.

But, of course, Windows XP is sooooo much mo'betta, and so is the highly
touted Microsoft support, so long as you want to deal with guys whose
first and second languages ain't English and whose ultimate answer
usually is, "Well, just reload windows."

Have a nice day.



Now, I know the great Windoze gurus here could have solved the problem
as easily as a roomful of monkeys sitting at typewriters could write
Joyce's Ulysses, right, because the gurus here are so up to date and
experienced in coding contemporary software that interfaces with Apple's
OS. Right?



And you pay for Apple Care.

Windows XP end of support
 

On 2/11/14, 6:41 AM, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 2/11/2014 8:33 AM, wrote:
On Tuesday, February 11, 2014 8:02:46 AM UTC-5, F.O.A.D. wrote:

The "drivers" on my Mac worked properly but sporadically with the
camera. No other devices I connect with Wi Fi were having problems.
There are limited numbers of settings to try from this end. So, I called
Mac and they came up with a solution that worked.

Might want to re-read that first sentence. The fact that it worked
"sporadically" means, by definition, it did *not* work "properly".
And the fact that Apple (not Canon) had to come up with a fix means it
was buggy Apple software.


Have a nice day.

I will. :-)



The problem (which no one likes to admit) is that the latest OSX from
Apple called "Mavericks" has some bugs. Harry has apparently
experienced a minor one. I have an issue that is well known but, to
date, Apple has not resolved. The Apple Support forums are full of
people with complaints and problems. Right now I am sorta wishing I had
held off upgrading to Mavericks. Based on what I've read, the previous
OSX (Mountain Lion) was optimized and stable. I don't know how Apple
updates it's current OSX with improvements. I occasionally check for
software updates on the iMac but so far it just reports that the version
I have is current.


I found out today the Spinning ball of death. Apple equivelent to Blue
Screen of Death. Found out how to Force Quit a progam today because of
that. Was a Pages problem. Lots of comments on the problem on the
Apple Forums.

Windows XP end of support
 

On 2/11/14, 6:27 AM, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 2/11/2014 6:55 AM, F.O.A.D. wrote:
On 2/11/14, 4:11 AM, KC wrote:


Sigh. Yet more problems for Windozes users. Meanwhile, an Apple
software
developer called me this morning to let me know he'd be emailing me a
small test program which he thinks will take care of a minor glitch I
had with a bit of hardware. Oh, he was in North Carolina and spoke
"Americanese." And what did I pay for my copy of Apple Mavericks OS
that
I installed on my laptop? Why...nothing.

Thank you, Microsoft.


This get's funnier and funnier every time.. Now you have a personal tech
guy just to fix a "minor glitch" (aka, lobsta boat) on your "hardware"
(also lobsta boat)... I have been running my machine for years. Got a
video card changed a couple years back, still doing fine. Today I was at
a client running Paint shop Pro, Dreamweaver, Macromedia Flash Maker,
Any video converter, Firefox, Chrome, a text editor, and downloading
movies from the customer computer.... all at the same time while hooked
up to a verison wireless router and doing live edits to his website
adding video and photos... .. No crashes.. I just don't see what the big
deal is with you guys...



Ahh, but you see, Apple products come with first-rate customer care.
When I couldn't get my Canon camera to link up properly over WiFi with
my new iMac, no matter what I did, I called AppleCare and the case was
assigned to one of its contract developers, who made some suggestions
and when they didn't work, he escalated it to a workgroup, a member of
whom called me and emailed a utility to me that Apple has to download
and transmit certain files from my machine. It took two days for the
tech to get back to me with a file he emailed and I loaded. Solved the
problem.

But, of course, Windows XP is sooooo much mo'betta, and so is the highly
touted Microsoft support, so long as you want to deal with guys whose
first and second languages ain't English and whose ultimate answer
usually is, "Well, just reload windows."

Have a nice day.



Now, I know the great Windoze gurus here could have solved the problem
as easily as a roomful of monkeys sitting at typewriters could write
Joyce's Ulysses, right, because the gurus here are so up to date and
experienced in coding contemporary software that interfaces with Apple's
OS. Right?


The last time I tried coding software was in the late 1980s. Oh .. I
also html coded the original "boats of rec boats" website because
canned website building software was just starting to be developed.

Since then, I've had no reason or requirement (as a computer user) to
"code" anything. Any issues with using an external device with Windows
either works fine or has had minor configuration issues to resolve. They
don't require writing code or calling Microsoft for a custom written
software update.

Geeze. You're starting to make me concerned about my iMac. For the
price she paid, the damn thing should perform as advertised without
having to resort to calling Apple Care or installing custom software
patches.



Friend years ago was an Apple Developer for the earlier Macs. He said
the book describing BIOS calls was huge. Way to many calls to be
efficient. No wonder there are bugs.

Windows XP end of support
 

On 2/11/14, 8:12 AM, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 2/11/2014 10:57 AM, HanK wrote:



You love playing with new toys. Admit it.

Tell you what I *don't* love. Snow storms.

We have another one arriving Thursday and going into Friday.
It's going to cause problems up the entire East Coast as well according
to the weather people.

It has been a fairly rough winter up here with too much snow. Other than
one that dumped about 16", they have been not been block busters of snow
storms but they have been arriving on a weekly basis. It has stayed cold
so melting has been minimal. I am going to start having problems having
a place to plow more snow away and the places I pile it up with the
tractor are getting too high for the bucket's reach.

We sign the official papers with the realtor on Thursday ... assuming he
can make it to the house in the snow. It will soon be on the market.
We'll probably move to a warmer place only to find out the earth's
magnetic poles have flipped and the new location will replicate the
northeast.





My buddy when he lived at Lake Tahoe had problems one year with the too
much snowfall. The berms along the street got too high for the scrapers
and they had to use Rotary Plows. Lots of windows being broke by ice
chunks and rocks picked up by the plow. Probably frozen dog turds also.

Windows XP end of support
 

On 2/11/14, 2:36 PM, Bill McKee wrote:
On 2/11/14, 3:55 AM, F.O.A.D. wrote:
On 2/11/14, 4:11 AM, KC wrote:


Sigh. Yet more problems for Windozes users. Meanwhile, an Apple
software
developer called me this morning to let me know he'd be emailing me a
small test program which he thinks will take care of a minor glitch I
had with a bit of hardware. Oh, he was in North Carolina and spoke
"Americanese." And what did I pay for my copy of Apple Mavericks OS
that
I installed on my laptop? Why...nothing.

Thank you, Microsoft.


This get's funnier and funnier every time.. Now you have a personal tech
guy just to fix a "minor glitch" (aka, lobsta boat) on your "hardware"
(also lobsta boat)... I have been running my machine for years. Got a
video card changed a couple years back, still doing fine. Today I was at
a client running Paint shop Pro, Dreamweaver, Macromedia Flash Maker,
Any video converter, Firefox, Chrome, a text editor, and downloading
movies from the customer computer.... all at the same time while hooked
up to a verison wireless router and doing live edits to his website
adding video and photos... .. No crashes.. I just don't see what the big
deal is with you guys...



Ahh, but you see, Apple products come with first-rate customer care.
When I couldn't get my Canon camera to link up properly over WiFi with
my new iMac, no matter what I did, I called AppleCare and the case was
assigned to one of its contract developers, who made some suggestions
and when they didn't work, he escalated it to a workgroup, a member of
whom called me and emailed a utility to me that Apple has to download
and transmit certain files from my machine. It took two days for the
tech to get back to me with a file he emailed and I loaded. Solved the
problem.

But, of course, Windows XP is sooooo much mo'betta, and so is the highly
touted Microsoft support, so long as you want to deal with guys whose
first and second languages ain't English and whose ultimate answer
usually is, "Well, just reload windows."

Have a nice day.



Now, I know the great Windoze gurus here could have solved the problem
as easily as a roomful of monkeys sitting at typewriters could write
Joyce's Ulysses, right, because the gurus here are so up to date and
experienced in coding contemporary software that interfaces with Apple's
OS. Right?



And you pay for Apple Care.

So?

--
Sarah Palin is watching the Sochi Olympic Games from the front porch of
her house.

Windows XP end of support
 

On 2/11/14, 7:54 AM, wrote:
On Tue, 11 Feb 2014 06:55:56 -0500, "F.O.A.D." wrote:

But, of course, Windows XP is sooooo much mo'betta, and so is the highly
touted Microsoft support, so long as you want to deal with guys whose
first and second languages ain't English and whose ultimate answer
usually is, "Well, just reload windows."

That is what you get with the OEM support. Microsoft can give you the
right answer if you have a retail key. The only time I ever talked to
them, they sounded "merican" to me. When I went to Dell (the OEM), I
got "Bob from Bombay" who said I had to reload the system.

The only reason I called in the first place was that was what the only
message I had said to do (registration problems)
I ended up figuring it out myself, like I have done for the rest of
the 30 years I have been running Wintel products..

I used to talk to MS about problems at times. Both ours and theirs, but
the equipment I designed and the test systems, were run on PC's so I was
listed as a developer and got direct connection to engineers and not Bob
of Bombay. Was not bad service. But we also paid money for the privilege.

Windows XP end of support
 

On 2/11/14, 2:40 PM, Bill McKee wrote:
On 2/11/14, 6:41 AM, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 2/11/2014 8:33 AM, wrote:
On Tuesday, February 11, 2014 8:02:46 AM UTC-5, F.O.A.D. wrote:

The "drivers" on my Mac worked properly but sporadically with the
camera. No other devices I connect with Wi Fi were having problems.
There are limited numbers of settings to try from this end. So, I
called
Mac and they came up with a solution that worked.

Might want to re-read that first sentence. The fact that it worked
"sporadically" means, by definition, it did *not* work "properly".
And the fact that Apple (not Canon) had to come up with a fix means it
was buggy Apple software.


Have a nice day.

I will. :-)



The problem (which no one likes to admit) is that the latest OSX from
Apple called "Mavericks" has some bugs. Harry has apparently
experienced a minor one. I have an issue that is well known but, to
date, Apple has not resolved. The Apple Support forums are full of
people with complaints and problems. Right now I am sorta wishing I had
held off upgrading to Mavericks. Based on what I've read, the previous
OSX (Mountain Lion) was optimized and stable. I don't know how Apple
updates it's current OSX with improvements. I occasionally check for
software updates on the iMac but so far it just reports that the version
I have is current.


I found out today the Spinning ball of death. Apple equivelent to Blue
Screen of Death. Found out how to Force Quit a progam today because of
that. Was a Pages problem. Lots of comments on the problem on the
Apple Forums.


It's actually called a "beach ball."

--
Sarah Palin is watching the Sochi Olympic Games from the front porch of
her house.

Windows XP end of support
 

On 2/11/14, 2:53 PM, Bill McKee wrote:
On 2/11/14, 7:54 AM, wrote:
On Tue, 11 Feb 2014 06:55:56 -0500, "F.O.A.D." wrote:

But, of course, Windows XP is sooooo much mo'betta, and so is the highly
touted Microsoft support, so long as you want to deal with guys whose
first and second languages ain't English and whose ultimate answer
usually is, "Well, just reload windows."

That is what you get with the OEM support. Microsoft can give you the
right answer if you have a retail key. The only time I ever talked to
them, they sounded "merican" to me. When I went to Dell (the OEM), I
got "Bob from Bombay" who said I had to reload the system.

The only reason I called in the first place was that was what the only
message I had said to do (registration problems)
I ended up figuring it out myself, like I have done for the rest of
the 30 years I have been running Wintel products..

I used to talk to MS about problems at times. Both ours and theirs, but
the equipment I designed and the test systems, were run on PC's so I was
listed as a developer and got direct connection to engineers and not Bob
of Bombay. Was not bad service. But we also paid money for the privilege.


I really got a kick out of the guys on the other end of the phone
reading to me from Microsoft's Knowledge Base pages. That happened with
Microsoft and it happened with HP, too.

--
Sarah Palin is watching the Sochi Olympic Games from the front porch of
her house.

Windows XP end of support
 

On 2/11/14, 11:52 AM, F.O.A.D. wrote:
On 2/11/14, 2:36 PM, Bill McKee wrote:
On 2/11/14, 3:55 AM, F.O.A.D. wrote:
On 2/11/14, 4:11 AM, KC wrote:


Sigh. Yet more problems for Windozes users. Meanwhile, an Apple
software
developer called me this morning to let me know he'd be emailing me a
small test program which he thinks will take care of a minor glitch I
had with a bit of hardware. Oh, he was in North Carolina and spoke
"Americanese." And what did I pay for my copy of Apple Mavericks OS
that
I installed on my laptop? Why...nothing.

Thank you, Microsoft.


This get's funnier and funnier every time.. Now you have a personal
tech
guy just to fix a "minor glitch" (aka, lobsta boat) on your "hardware"
(also lobsta boat)... I have been running my machine for years. Got a
video card changed a couple years back, still doing fine. Today I
was at
a client running Paint shop Pro, Dreamweaver, Macromedia Flash Maker,
Any video converter, Firefox, Chrome, a text editor, and downloading
movies from the customer computer.... all at the same time while hooked
up to a verison wireless router and doing live edits to his website
adding video and photos... .. No crashes.. I just don't see what the
big
deal is with you guys...



Ahh, but you see, Apple products come with first-rate customer care.
When I couldn't get my Canon camera to link up properly over WiFi with
my new iMac, no matter what I did, I called AppleCare and the case was
assigned to one of its contract developers, who made some suggestions
and when they didn't work, he escalated it to a workgroup, a member of
whom called me and emailed a utility to me that Apple has to download
and transmit certain files from my machine. It took two days for the
tech to get back to me with a file he emailed and I loaded. Solved the
problem.

But, of course, Windows XP is sooooo much mo'betta, and so is the highly
touted Microsoft support, so long as you want to deal with guys whose
first and second languages ain't English and whose ultimate answer
usually is, "Well, just reload windows."

Have a nice day.



Now, I know the great Windoze gurus here could have solved the problem
as easily as a roomful of monkeys sitting at typewriters could write
Joyce's Ulysses, right, because the gurus here are so up to date and
experienced in coding contemporary software that interfaces with Apple's
OS. Right?



And you pay for Apple Care.

So?

You seem to imply it is supplied thru altruism by Apple. Just because
you bought an Apple product.