Re: Thunderbird question

On Tue, 29 Sep 2009 13:58:26 -0400, Emily <Emily@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Tue, 29 Sep 2009 09:14:28 -0700, Rumpelstiltskin
<nobody@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Luddite that I am, it did take me a long time to come out
of my Windows 3.1 cave and into Windows XP. I have to
admit that Windows XP is a big improvement over 3.1 for
the most part, but what's with all the crap?

It's been eons since I used 3.1, but I seem to remember some wonderful
feature where one could sort using the complete contents of a drive,
rather than having to do it within directories or folders. Where did
that jewel go?

Don't you run into problems installing recent programs on 3.1?


When I spoke of leaving my 3.1 cave, that was quite a long
time ago. I'm a Luddite but not a fossil, though it gets harder
to tell the difference as each year goes by. I expect very little
will run on 3.1 these days, though 3.1 will run old stuff that XP
won't run. I have a great Q-Bert game for DOS, which ran on
3.1, but won't run on XP, in the sense that on some screens
you can't see the matrix because it's all the same colour on
XP, and tweaking the colours doesn't help.

I just downloaded a Q-Bert I found on the web, but it's DOS
so it's probably the same one I already have, and won't work.



Why are there
three separate personalities in Documents and Settings,

A great question. I certainly have no answer.

and why can't I easily find out whether the one I'm on has
"administrator privileges". And don't get me started on
the #$&*(%#)! registry! Who ever needed that enormous
complication, especially since it's impossible to keep it
from degrading performance over time? Maybe there
should be a corporate version of Windows with all kinds
of protections and restrictions to keep the various castes
of serfs in their God-given place, and a home user
version for atheists, with no complications, where
everything is readily available.

I think a version for the sole user is a good idea. This is my
computer, no one else is going to use it, and I don't need all those
User folders cluttering up my file list. I can think of several
suggestions for improvement. One would be not to stick ugly files in
places where they're not wanted and then refuse to let them be
removed. I have all my books on an external hard drive, sorted to my
taste, and clean of any extraneous files or folders. But after the
last Windows update, a have a new folder and it can't be deleted. I
suppose I could do it from DOS but alas, I've forgotten the DOS
commands.


I'm constantly deleting the "my music" and "my something else"
folders that pop up as subfolders of "My Documents", which is
the automatic windows default download folder where I DON'T
keep documents. I zap the "my music" folder in annoyance
every time I see it, but it comes back.



By the way, how is APN working for you these days? Mine has been
having some very slow periods and other irritating problems. I'm
trying Giganews on my laptop for comparison, and if it seems more
stable, I think I'll drop APN. Diagnosing the culprit is complicated
by the fact that our router occasionally loses connection with the
satellite even when there's no apparent atmospheric reason for it.
One of my neighbors also has WildBlue and recently when my router
light was blinking, she still had connection so I fear we're going to
have to have another tree cut down, a huge, very tall poplar.


It's been commented on the web that APN has been bad lately.
Just now, I tried to download files from Soc.Retirement and only
half the bodies got retrieved before it crapped out. When that
happens, I have to sort by date so that I can see all the new stuff
at the end, then remove the "download" indicator from all the
new files from posters who are in my killfile. I can spot those
easily because they're greyed-out whereas the ones I actually
want to download are in red. Normally during retrieving new
messages, all the bodies get retrieved and the killfiled articles
stay grey, but if the system craps out and I retrieve messages
separate from the download, all the remaining messages will
end up red, so I'll be clicking on posters I've killfiled.

I gather from what I heard on the web that APN was using
Supernews for its feed, but is using something else now that
apparently isn't working that well. This is the first period I've
used APN where it's been so bad, but the web postings say
that it has been even worse at remoter times in the past.




.

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