Unhappy Camper?

[Jim Koepke]

Bill Gates’s first day at work in the newly created role of technology adviser got off to a rocky start yesterday as the Microsoft founder struggled for hours to install the Windows 8.1 upgrade.
The installation hit a snag early on, sources said, when Mr. Gates repeatedly received an error message informing him that his PC ran into a problem that it could not handle and needed to restart.

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blog...indows-81.html


jtk

[Myk Rian]

I like this part the best:

A Microsoft spokesman said only that Mr. Gates’s first day in his new job had been “a learning experience” and that, for the immediate future, he would go back to running Windows 7.

And he said many years ago that a PC would never need more than 64k memory.

Life is good. Oh, how I miss OS/2.

[Kev Williams]

Hopefully Bill will understand, at least a little bit, why guys like me who rely on computers to make a living, continue to wonder why it is that whenever a new OS comes out, much of the old technology gets kicked to the curb? I got a new computer with Win8 for xmas, and I can't run 90% of my older software, can't load 90% of the drivers that work fine on XP, there's no place to put an LPT port, which 90% of my machines require. I love Win8, but other than I can run ONE of my machines with it, it's completely useless to me!

I'd love to show Bill around my shop...

[Frederick Skelly]

First, let me say that I'm not a Gates Hater or Microsoft Hater like so many seem to be. But I think it is absolutely fitting that Mr Gates experienced what many others have with Microsoft products. If he takes it to heart, then he could be exactly the right person to advocate for improvements that strengthen their product.

Don't you wish some high-ups from the companies who own your local car dealerships could experience the shabby treatment you've received when trying to purchase a car? (Even Japanese companies.)

My point being - executives can become disconnected from the customer experience. If they do, the brand can and often does suffer.

Here's hoping Mr. Gates "gets it" now.
Fred

[Steve Rozmiarek]

That may seriously be the best thing thats happened to windows in years. Fingers crossed that things change.

[Bob Vavricka]

Daily satire column by Andy Borowitz at The New Yorker.

[Scott Shepherd]

It would be nice if they would spend as much time and effort on stopping spam and email scams as they do on the next operating system.

[phil harold]

Daily satire column by Andy Borowitz at The New Yorker.

rode the bus to school with andy and marc cohn

[Val Kosmider]

First, let me say that I'm not a Gates Hater or Microsoft Hater like so many seem to be. But I think it is absolutely fitting that Mr Gates experienced what many others have with Microsoft products. If he takes it to heart, then he could be exactly the right person to advocate for improvements that strengthen their product.

Don't you wish some high-ups from the companies who own your local car dealerships could experience the shabby treatment you've received when trying to purchase a car? (Even Japanese companies.)

My point being - executives can become disconnected from the customer experience. If they do, the brand can and often does suffer.

Here's hoping Mr. Gates "gets it" now.
Fred

...and then there is the story of Rex Tillerson, the CEO of Exxon, who is part of a homeowners law suit attempting to stop a water tower from being built near his property. The purpose for the tank? In part to supply water for a fracking operation!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/0...n_4833185.html

[Larry Browning]

This story just reeks of being a hoax. There is just no way that Bill Gates would not already have 8.1 already installed on his PC and if he were issued a new one what are the chances it came with Windows 7 on it right out of the box? Really? It's a funny thought that we would like to to be true, but there is just no way.

[Larry Browning]

I like this part the best:


And he said many years ago that a PC would never need more than 64k memory.

Life is good. Oh, how I miss OS/2.

I believe the quote was 640k, but still.......

[Ben Silver]

It would be nice if they would spend as much time and effort on stopping spam and email scams as they do on the next operating system.

How do they sell stopping spam, scams, phishing attacks? The point of the business is to generate revenue, profitably (lots of room for opinions on the exact purpose, but this is the simplest explanation) and while getting those things done would generate a lot of goodwill none of them have simple solutions that the end user would understand enough to be willing to pay for (or that might be reasonably considered a product, as I see it).

Pushing the limits of what the hardware can handle with the OS is something that can be more easily quantified and that​ is what confuses me . . . they so often throw out something half-baked that I wonder if they understand what they need to do to be profitable.