There’s not much happening in Nickyland, other than some of his nonsensical tweets, with fantastic replies from Troy Lockport. He’s back in FB jail for another month, so there hasn’t been anything to report lately.
Here’s the real subject of this entry. Mircosoft, without fail, bungs up my computer every time it does a major update. I had an issue last week with my (paid) AVG Internet Protection software getting screwed up, losing my key, and not retaining it whenever I copy-pasted it back in. Ultimately, I uninstalled it, then reinstalled it, and that solved the problem.
Next up, when trying to shut down the computer, it would pretend to shut down, then automatically reboot to install a Windows update. Okay, fine. Then when it was finished, I tried once again to shut it down, but it refused to shut down without first doing another update, even though I did not select the “update and shut down” option from the power menu. So, it did the second update, then shut down. Went to bed for the night.
This morning, I power up, and Microsoft beams me out yet another update. The file downloads, features and drivers installation, and configuration took about an hour and 15 minutes altogether. That must have been one heck of a service patch, because it took as long as the entire upgrade from 8.1 pro to 10 did. And, as with the original upgrade to 10, it bunged up my internet connection. It didn’t lock me into airplane mode or blow away my wi-fi network, but it refused to load web pages. No wonder Windows couldn’t troubleshoot and solve the connectivity problem; after checking its own firewall, it decided everything was hunky-dory. But, it wasn’t. Turns out the update disabled my AVG firewall, and enabled the Windows one.
Christ, once I figured out what the problem really was, I disabled the Windows firewall, enabled the AVG one, and rebooted. Success! So, I’m finally back in business this morning, but it took a couple of hours.
Those of you in IT might be laughing at me, but going all the way back to MS-DOS 1.0, I’m self-taught on PCs. I don’t deal with this sort of thing on an everyday basis. Since I retired, I no longer have my old network administrator to warn me “You’re going to get a service patch. Go ahead and install it, but be aware it’s going to take about half an hour.” This means I have to follow the bouncing ball and hope for the best.
I look back at the days when the entire OS only hogged up 30 Mb, and laugh that I used to complain about that being bloatware. In retrospect, that was nothing. After informing me that it had installed a bunch of new features, all I can say is thank god it didn’t force feed me a tour of them. If I don’t discover them on my own within the next week or two, I’ll probably never use them, anyway.
The best thing of all during this entire update happened as the installation was approaching the finish line, and my other half played this on his PC for me:
That made me laugh.
After a couple decades of dealing with computers, I have yet to find an “update” or an “upgrade” that actually improves anything. They seem to just throw more and more bugs into the system.
If we’re lucky, Nicky will get one of those “updates” and it’ll nix him out entirely. He’s been really boring lately… I think he’s just in limbo, or run out of gas. I guess even a complete psychotic can get bored of his own obsessions, given enough time.
I did see some odd activity from him about a week ago — he replied to a comment I made on a YouTube video (using a name he never heard of), calling me a “faggot” and saying it’s because of me that he was plagiarized. He must think I’m somebody else, or accusing people of being gay plagiarists is just his default setting. Tap a knee, you get a reflex kick. Talk to Nicky, you get accused of being a plagiarism advocate. 🙂
I tell him I’m a plagiarism avocado. It drives him nuts 😉
Hey, Rusty. Just a quick correction. It’s Troy Lockport, not Lockwood 😉 You’re not the only one who struggles with computers. They give me endless grief.
By the way, if you’re looking for some major giggles, (shameless self promotion ahead 🙂 check out my story “Prickless on Parade” in the new Fossil Lake III: Unicornado. I’d love to hear what you and everyone else thinks of it. It’s the story of a greasy little cellar dweller who ventures out of his hole for a weekend in Chicago that goes horribly awry with hilarious results! You can pick it up here on eBook for only $3. https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/623229
Oops. Sorry about that. That’s what I get for not opening a new tab to load Nicky’s Twitter feed to doublecheck. Correcting it above in 3 … 2 … 1 …
OMFG. I had to skip ahead to get to your story. It left my sides aching. Aside from reminding me how out of shape my obliques are, it’s obvious that you have Nicky’s number, so to speak. You tossed a bazillion things in there.
What made me laugh the most, though, was the yak imagery. My dilute tortie Norwegian Forest Cat only smells like clean fur to me, but we call her our “yak cat,” because when she trots, her entire coat bounces up and down like that of a trotting yak. The kind you see in nature documentaries from Attenborough. *wink wink nudge nudge*
You’re good with imagery.
As an aside, I thought it was cool that Karen gave me a shout out in her intro. My extended family does seem to enjoy my from-scratch pies. And Mary’s bottomless pocketbook, even though it wasn’t hers, made me laugh.
At some point, I will have to post a review of Unicornado, but I haven’t read all the stories, yet.
Yak reference? Oh, I have GOT to pick that up.
Awesome. So glad you liked it. Yeah, there’s a ton of ‘Nikki trivia’ woven into the story. Hehehe 😉 And yes, Karen’s introduction was hilarious!
Thanks, Troy. And, Rusty, I don’t know why, exactly, but when I hear that Europe song, I want to flip my desk out an open window, it’s that annoying.
I hate it too, but it served its purpose.
You guys must really love that Geico commercial… You know the one.
I do chuckle when I see it, but what makes me laugh more than the song per se is the lady shimmying to it near the end.
With her little shimmy and deadpan expression, she makes the commercial.
It wouldn’t have been nearly as good without her “Dafuq?!?!” look near the beginning.
Two things: If you want Windows 10 to not update automatically open the Settings app, select Network & Internet, scroll down, and select “Advanced options” below the list of Wi-Fi networks. Enable the “Set as metered connection” option. This option only affects the Wi-Fi network you’re currently connected to, but Windows will remember this setting for each individual Wi-Fi network.
Second AVG is one of the worst anti virus programs because it screws up a lot of Windows settings. Honestly, I don’t use one. Haven’t for years, just what comes with Windows and have never had an issue.