Well bust mah britches and call me cheeky, on Sat, 27 Oct 2007 15:14:31
GMT Jonathan N. Little scribed:
Seems to be a trend, MS software that worked just fine that after
upgrade and "enhancement"...well Office and basic file management
Explorer come to mind.
Nope, they're mp3s. Successfully transfered my media library from old
drive with Win2K profile to new with WinXP and worked until and my WMP
v9 was upgraded.
Huh. Believe it or not (-and I quite believe you), I've never run into
an mp3 like that I couldn't play. True, I generally use Winamp, but I
have well over 1000 mp3s on my 'puter and most of 'em (if not all) have
been through wmp11 at some time or other. Furthermore, Winamp seems to
honor drm on wmas. In any event, it was a stupid, bad idea - at least as
far as major user consumption is concerned. Simple marketing research
should have told them that (unless those "professionals" are as bogus as
the ones at MS.)
When I first got wmp11, I was a bit surprised. It seemed to work
pretty good (although what you say about the controls is true.)
However, .aac (and .mp4) files were coming out about then, and _they_
are the latest word in superior digital music. Smaller size, better
quality, and quite user-friendly. Does wmp11 support them? No, of
course not. Why not? As I said before, because MS is just plain
stupid. It's like Internet Explorer, but <grin> have no fear... In
5 or 6 years when ie8 comes out, it'll probably have most of the
standards from 5 or 6 years back from today down pat. Had I been an
MS decision-maker, I'd have busted my hump to support these new and
desirable music formats, but they just go blithely along in their
retrograde world asking where you want to go today for a good laugh
or two before they dream up some new shit to alienate the end user.
You gotta love it.
Had the "pleasure" to fix a Windows Vista machine lately. Firstly it
is amazing how much stuff (software and hardware) does *not* work on
Vista. Get places like network adapter setting and user profile can be
an exercise of real frustration. To transfer user profile data you
need to have access to hidden folder within a profile. For instance
move a Thunderbird mail account. Real easy, just move the contents
"mail" folder to the
[userProfile]\Application
Data\Thunderbird\Profiles\[salt].default\Mail
Piece of cake! On Linux, Win9x-XP...just show hidden and system
folders, right? Probably on a Mac too. Not on Vista! Had to go
hunting. The only way to get there, even while administrator, is to
put the env var %AppData% in the Run Box!
I've heard there were troubles with Vista (MS's "last great hope" -
'last' meaning most recent), but what choice is there? I'm still on XP,
which is no pinnacle of excellence, either, but if/when I bought/buy a
new box...? Sure, Lixux, Unix, Mac, etc., but except for the mac, those
aren't really mainstream options, and technically by market-share, mac
isn't, either. Besides, I've gotten used to what I've gotten used to.
It's like having an old lady who doesn't put out anymore but you still
like her pickling techniques. In the early days, there were several
choices: TRS-80, Apple, Commodore, TI, and others. Now there's
basically just one. Of course, one could always dump the box and get a
cell phone thingy like the juvenile delinquents do.
I can understand protecting the OS, especially from idiots, but the
stuff in your profile folder is supposed to be, well YOURS!
<rant>
If I buy a CD it is mine! If I buy or build a PC, it's mine. If I buy
WindowsWZ and put it on my computer, it's mine. If not, and WindowsWZ
breaks or @#^%$-up my stuff, then MS should fix it on their dime if it
is not mine!
</rant>
Sorry... lost it there a moment...
Har har hardy har har! You want _Microsoft_ to fix it? -Microsoft?? Up
until now I thought you were a rational person.
Btw, they came out with a Window's Update 3-4 months ago which screwed up
lots of things. One of these "things" was making my box require a BIOS
update to run as smoothly as it had prior to the update. Now that's the
Microsoft we know and love so bloomin' well.
