NationStates Jolt Archive

My computer died earlier this week. Rather than get a new power supply and have it installed (I'm 99% certain that was the problem), my daughter decided I needed a new one. So we went to Best Buy and there she chose a brand new HP Inspiron - a cheap one (the best we could afford, to be fair). I hate it. Not the computer itself, but the default settings - can't find Aol (not that this is bad, but I am paying for it), I have to go through a whole shitload of convoluted actions to post links, all of my favorite places have to be reset and it's doing weird things with NationStates and some of my other favorite sites. I'm not asking help, I'll work it out eventually - this is just a rant.

So, do you ever feel like this with a new piece of equipment? :headbang:

I've only ever built my own computers, so the default settings are always my own. That said, Windows and other things do have some silly defaults.

Nope. If I get the stuff with pre-installed software I simply format everything first and then mind my own business, with my Win '98 looking Win XP SP2 that I have been using for the last 4 years.

My husband is a computer engineer, I make him make my computer accessible to me before I even play with it. He loads all my settings and favorites and puts the right icons on the desktop and puts all the macros in my word processing program and everything.

What operating system do you have? I might be able to help you find AOL (although I hate AOL! stupid fuckers stole 80 hours a week of my time 9 years ago! although.... the stock options were pretty!)

So, do you ever feel like this with a new piece of equipment? :headbang:
I love the process of personalising your settings on a new machine. It's like decorating a treehouse or painting cool motifs on your van - you can just go mad and tweak things however you want them. I also love the satisfaction of uninstalling all the junk that's pre-installed and NOT using AOL as my internet hub (hint hint).