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Windows 10 vs. A Bad Marriage
Nov. 10th, 2015 12:08 pmAfter more than a week without a computer, I'm finally back online and, more importantly, able to resume work - arduous though it may be - on my LJ compilation project.
It's definitely been an expensive road back, in time, money, and some irretrievably-lost resources. And it was made that way, or at least exaccerbated, by technical and strategic errors on my part which resulted having to start over with the new Windows 10 operating system on a virgin hard drive.
The scariest moment was when I fired up the new computer, inserted the thumb drive on which I'd stored so many days and weeks of compiled and edited LJ files, and realized that I couldn't read a single one of them with the apps provided with the Windows 10 OS.
In a way, it was one of those proverbial blessings in disguise, albeit a scary one. Some internet research with the new computer revealed that the knock-off version of Microsoft Office - Works for Windows - where I'd gotten my word processor, had been discontinued in 2010 and the files were unreadable using any contemporary word processor.
The good news was that Microsoft would provide a free conversion program which could be used to translate individual files into a form readable in MS Word. Of course, that meant that I'd have to invest in the latest version of Ms Office but I was relieved to discover that there is now a home/student edition available for a more reasonable $150.
Ordinarily, I'd have choked on a number like that for anything less than a complete operating system. But I'd priced Ms Office several years back and, unless you could document that you were currently a full-time student at an accredited college or university, the price was somewhere north of $400. Which is precisely why I'd stuck with the knock-off for so long.
Ahead of me, I still have the one-by-one conversion of my already brought-over and edited files but I can do that a little at a time. And in the meantime I can resume downloading, editing, and saving the balance of my LJ entries. (There may be what we used to call a "batch file" option somewhere, but I haven't found it.)
And so dear reader, if there be any such out there, that is what I've spent my last two mornings doing - about 3 to 3-1/2 hours per day - bringing files across, editing, and saving. Truly, it's a major PITA. But it truly beats the hand-wringing and breast-beating I'd be doing if I hadn't found a viable solution.
All things considered, I wouldn't recommend Windows 10 just yet. It's still not fully-developed, it's infinitely less intuitive (user-friendly) than previous versions, and it's obviously a marketing tool - like those $60 printers that are intentionally priced as retail loss-leaders. Which then bring the consumer back numerous times, over the life of the printer, for replacement ink cartridges at, you guessed it, $60 a pop.
But, as I've said about my marriage, "It's what we've got." At least with the operating system there's a reasonable prospect that it'll be upgraded and improved over time...
LPK
LiveJournal
11.10.2015
It's definitely been an expensive road back, in time, money, and some irretrievably-lost resources. And it was made that way, or at least exaccerbated, by technical and strategic errors on my part which resulted having to start over with the new Windows 10 operating system on a virgin hard drive.
The scariest moment was when I fired up the new computer, inserted the thumb drive on which I'd stored so many days and weeks of compiled and edited LJ files, and realized that I couldn't read a single one of them with the apps provided with the Windows 10 OS.
In a way, it was one of those proverbial blessings in disguise, albeit a scary one. Some internet research with the new computer revealed that the knock-off version of Microsoft Office - Works for Windows - where I'd gotten my word processor, had been discontinued in 2010 and the files were unreadable using any contemporary word processor.
The good news was that Microsoft would provide a free conversion program which could be used to translate individual files into a form readable in MS Word. Of course, that meant that I'd have to invest in the latest version of Ms Office but I was relieved to discover that there is now a home/student edition available for a more reasonable $150.
Ordinarily, I'd have choked on a number like that for anything less than a complete operating system. But I'd priced Ms Office several years back and, unless you could document that you were currently a full-time student at an accredited college or university, the price was somewhere north of $400. Which is precisely why I'd stuck with the knock-off for so long.
Ahead of me, I still have the one-by-one conversion of my already brought-over and edited files but I can do that a little at a time. And in the meantime I can resume downloading, editing, and saving the balance of my LJ entries. (There may be what we used to call a "batch file" option somewhere, but I haven't found it.)
And so dear reader, if there be any such out there, that is what I've spent my last two mornings doing - about 3 to 3-1/2 hours per day - bringing files across, editing, and saving. Truly, it's a major PITA. But it truly beats the hand-wringing and breast-beating I'd be doing if I hadn't found a viable solution.
All things considered, I wouldn't recommend Windows 10 just yet. It's still not fully-developed, it's infinitely less intuitive (user-friendly) than previous versions, and it's obviously a marketing tool - like those $60 printers that are intentionally priced as retail loss-leaders. Which then bring the consumer back numerous times, over the life of the printer, for replacement ink cartridges at, you guessed it, $60 a pop.
But, as I've said about my marriage, "It's what we've got." At least with the operating system there's a reasonable prospect that it'll be upgraded and improved over time...
LPK
LiveJournal
11.10.2015
