Hit Any Key to Continue

Have you seen that cartoon? The version I saw had a duck standing in front of a computer with a grimace on his face and a rather large mallet raised over his head. The tag line said "Hit any key to continue." That's how I felt yesterday and why I am way behind today.

Saturday night I got a message from Microsoft asking me to download their newest version of Explorer. Seems like I get these update notices at least two or three times a week from this software company or that. Some companies have very smooth updates, such as Avast anti-virus. Others are a horror show. Take Adobe Software for example. I try not to update their programs as I generally find substantial problems afterward. With Microsoft it's a mixed bag. Sometimes good. Sometimes not so good.

Because updates often require a restart, I try to do them during off hours. Saturday night seemed to be a good time to get the Explorer 8 update done. Since then I've had a devil of a time using the copy and paste function in Blogger. When I am in Blogger using Explorer 8 I can't copy any text within the blog post using the blog editor, nor can I copy and paste anything from my Microsoft word files to blog posts. Since I started blogging, I've never had a problem with this although I've read many complaints from people who have had the problem in the past. Looking at some of the solutions given for past complaints, some people suggest using a plain text editor. So I copied from Word to Notepad, then from Notepad to Blogger; no luck.

I wasted hours on this yesterday. It's frustrating and time consuming. Worse, I have reprint permission for several posts written by others that I want to scan in to Word, edit them, and copy and paste to the blog. Obviously all of this is on hold. And, with me in a very busy month program-wise, time is limited.

Using both Google and Microsoft products extensively, I get the very real impression they don't like each other and work very hard to avoid cooperating. When people send me Word attachments in gmail, Google suggests I open them with Google docs. Yet Google docs has very little by way of capabilities. When I try to open them in Word, Microsoft tells me it can't deal with them without an upgrade? How come I don't have that problem with other email providers.

So why do I think the problem is Explorer 8? Because I write this post today using Mozilla Firefox instead of Explorer 8. And I can copy and paste back and forth between Blogger and Word quite nicely. Ah ha, you say. Problem solved. Unfortunately not. When I try to publish a post with copy and paste, I get all kinds of errors. I finally found a crude way around them so I can use copy and paste but at the moment it's difficult and time-consuming.

So here's today's post to let you know why you don't have a good solid business issue or interesting article from me. I don't usually rant here, but I had to vent somewhere. Now I've got to get going on other things.

Oh ya, my wife doesn't like my ranting either. As this process worsened yesterday she disappeared to somewhere quiet. Later I discovered she locked up all my hammers and mallets.

About me: Dan Pelley's career experiences range from the shipping room to the boardroom and the college classroom. He has worked in companies as diverse as metal stamping, foundries, pharmaceuticals, computers and electronic components, hospitals, nursing homes, motor carriers, distribution, retailers, social services, government, quasi-government agencies, a major art museum and an airline. He shares his experiences through programs and seminars for companies in New England and through this blog.

The above was a copy and paste. I had to edit out a lot Html stuff to get it work using Firefox.

Copyright © 2009 Daniel W. Pelley
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