Guest Post #2

You all remember our fantastic house in Grasse, in the south of France? Well...confession time...it wasn't really ours. You see, we have these amazing friends, Jan and Elizabeth Lodal (and their two rock-star kids Eric and Kirsten). And, well, they bought the house, so technically I guess that means it belongs to them. Either way, we weren't up for a West Side Story rumble or anything so when they came to knock on the door, we graciously vacated. Where was all this going...oh yeah...

Jan is as big a tech-head as I am. And he wrote a little piece for Bomad. It's a Microsoft-Bashing piece, which always earns top billing in my book. But I'll publish it on one condition, Jan. Your next piece has to be a debrief of your latest visitor to Grasse. You know, the one who sits on the United States Supreme Court...

Size Counts (Dale Fox Makes Big Files) by Jan Lodal

Dale kindly updated the "Information Sheet" that provides helpful hints for visitors to our (Jan and Elizabeth Lodal's) house in Grasse. Among many other improvements, he added some color maps. But the result of adding the maps was to create a 2.7 megabyte MS-WORD document -- not convenient for those few still stuck outside broadband cyberspace! He made a smaller .pdf version, but I don't have the $400 Adobe software necessary to maintain that one. So I decided to make an alternative small-file version without the graphics. To do this, I opened up Dale's document in WORD, cut out the graphics, and re-saved the document. Microsoft then did for me the really terrific job they do for so many other billions of people around the world each day --instead of 2.7 megabytes, I now had a concise no-graphics version of only 2.9 megabytes!

I've tried for many years to get someone to explain to me the absolute mystery of MS-WORD file sizes. But there is a "secret trick" for anyone else who might encounter this bit of frustration. Fix your file, then "Select All," "Copy," open a new "blank document," and "Paste" your clipboard into it. Save this "new" document, which will be identical to the one you started with. In my case, 2.9 megabytes became 0.1 megabytes! (Microsoft will give you a page of suggestions if you type "reduce file size" into MS-WORD help, but there is no hint there of this trick.)

Why would anyone waste their time asking "why" about anything Microsoft does? Just for the fun of trying to solve utterly impossible problems perhaps, or to hone one's Michael Moore style conspiracy theory creation skills. My theory: start with some bureaucratic fight among software developersand buck that up to managers. The managers will quickly realize that if they leave the stupidity in the software, Microsoft junk will be even more incompatible with other programs, take up even more resources, and therefore push a few more hapless consumers into upgrading their hardware and software more frequently, perpetuating the Microsoft monopoly a few more years!

Comments

[Matthieu]

Hi there,
I'm very happy to read that page on your Blog.
I was Lodal family neighbor in Grasse in the 80's, 90's.
I remimber wonderful moments during summer vacations with Eric Kirsten, Elisabeth and Jan.
Should you please, foward them that short message?

Dear friends,
I often wonder what you become
I hope , You are very very well and you didn't change.
I'll be very happy to exchange some news with you again.
Next time you come in Grasse , please give me a call or e-mail me!
My son, my wife and I will be very happy to meet you!

See you soon
Kindly

Matthieu

Matthieu d'Halluin
Mougins, France
Phone : +33.6.64.70.10.06
mdhalluin@free.fr

[Kirsten]

So, I'm officially in need of my own life because I just spent an hour + in deep, deep bomad land. Ah, the rapture... And, Dale, you'll be pleased to know that no, not the erotica, but the tech section seduced me the most. And, what a pleasure to find an anti-Microsoft rant from my very own tech activist father. I couldn't be more proud :). Dale, at some point I'll have to quiz you about the fantastic, easy platform on which you've created this all. Could be a great tool to enable our local office volunteers to communicate with one another (both within their city cohorts and nationwide), and we currently have only a shitty online portal for message boards, doc sharing, etc. Miss you both -- sounds like things continue to be fantastic. All is well on this end. Ran the Marine Corps Marathon last month, which was a blast. Jeff is great -- download his latest at downdexter.com, and updates on my NSP life can be found at nspnet.org. Eric is back in LA after fighting the good fight for Kerry. Such a heartbreaker... And the parentals are well, but wishing they were back in Grasse with you. Much love, Kirsten

[Carol Fox]

way to go, jan! i am no tech-head, i just try to get along with the simplest sorts of communication devices in word, or whatever else my two techies, dale and derek, encourage me in. still, i keep feeling that it just shouldn't be so mysterious and difficult to figure this stuff out. i CAN follow directions after all. So I had just about decided it was simply a matter of brilliant young men who speak computer not being nearly as talented in the ways of inter-human communications -- you know, the same ones who write the directions for digital cameras, etc. -- and i figure it has to be young men because women (and the older men who survive) are either doing other things, or have learned how to communicate with other human beings who aren't necessarily literate in computer-speak. now, thx to jan, i now know it's a conspiracy after all. and to think, bill gates is still looking for ways to spend all the money he's making...