November 19, 1993
Dear Everyone:
I got a new PC a few weeks ago. His
name is Phineas.
Phineas is a
Gateway 2000 Turbo 486 and now you know as much as I do.
I believe it means that he has
lots of room on his hard drive for software and lots of memory to run
said software. And he runs really
fast. I have no idea how many
miles he gets to the gallon.
He also has (shudder)
Windows®. Up until now, I've
been able to say simply, "Ah don't
do Windows®."
My PC at work didn't have
Windows®. Ogden had Windows® for
a while, but the only thing I used it for was playing
Solitaire.
Microsoft, the
company that invented and markets Windows®, includes a couple of games
free with every copy of the software. The
"hidden agenda" is to get you used to using the mouse by doing something
you're already familiar with, like playing a card game.
The computer randomly selects and
displays the cards, and then you use the mouse to "click and drag" the
cards where you want them.
Last week, during my lunch break, I decided to play a few hands of
Solitaire just to relax. Wouldn't
you know my boss would come in while I'm playing games?
I told him it only
looked like I was playing;
actually, I was "improving my mouse skills".
Of course, there's more to Windows® than just games and fiddling with
your mouse. The whole point to it
is that it allows you to jump from one application to another quickly
and easily. But you also have to
keep in mind that computers can be tricky little pranksters.
Click in the wrong place and your
work disappears while Phineas sits there chuckling to himself.
(Remember, they can sense fear.)
Of course, he never tries this stuff when “Daisy”, our official PC
Coordinator is around. Then he's
on his best behavior. But the
minute she's out the door, Phineas is up to his old tricks again.
You might think that, in the
event that “Daisy” is unavailable to keep Phineas in line, I could just
go to the "unofficial" backup Coordinator.
Problem is, that's me.
Of course, there are rules that you can follow:
·
Rule #1:
It's always the
computer's fault. Doesn't matter
what went wrong, you can always blame it on "that #@*& computer!"
·
Rule #2:
No two keyboards are alike. This
follows the tradition of selling hot dogs in packages of 10 and hot dog
buns in packages of 8.
There are two main reasons for all these changes.
One is that we’re getting a
Local Area
Network (a LAN) and the older PCs aren't up to it.
The other is that Company’s
computer company, CITC (Company Information Technology Co), has
announced a company-wide “Common Operating Environment”, or COE.
The idea of the COE is that the
more people who use the same type of environment and software, the
easier (and cheaper) it is for CITC to support it.
The COE also gives Company more clout when negotiating with computer
companies. Consequently,
Microsoft, in order to be included in the COE, has offered a rock-bottom
price for a specific combinations of applications.
You basically get four software
packages for the price of one.
As for the LAN, for those of you unfamiliar with the term, it's a group
of PCs, called
Clients, connected by wire to another PC called a
Server.
The Server is sort of like a PC
with a thyroid condition. It has
a (relatively) huge drive and tons of memory.
You load software onto the Server
and then all the Clients can use the same software at the same time
without cluttering up their own hard drives.
And the PCs can talk to each
other through the Server. PCs
that aren't hooked up to a Server are called "stand alones", which
sounds rather sad.
As usual, “Daisy” will be the official Coordinator for the LAN and I'll
be the one people come running to when something goes wrong.
I'm considering naming the Server
"Sydney". He's already set up and
running, we just haven't loaded any software or joined the Clients to
him yet. But, keep in mind the
fact that we’ll be getting a second, bigger, Server next year for the
CRMIS replacement, I may just wait and name them
Felix and Oscar.
Love, as always,
Pete
PS. I'm on vacation next week.
Everyone have a great
Thanksgiving. P.
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