Soap Box

I just placed my order for Norton Systemworks 2001. It doesn't come out until September 20, but I don't know how much longer I can live without Norton Utilities in Windows 2000. I swear by Norton AntiVirus, and 2001 will finally make the update process truly automatic. Windows ME will have the same functionality, I only wish Windows 2000 did as well. It should be customisable, but I think that all software should have the option of getting and installing all of the relevant updates automatically, especially if you're on a broadband connection. Why should I have to remember to check? This afternoon, the local Linux Users Group is having a meeting to plan an upcoming install-a-thon. This will be the second meeting I've attended, and I'm hoping it's better than the one I went this summer.

After the LUG Meeting, I'm going to a lecture given by the professor I had this summer, and who is teaching the class I'm taking this fall. He's giving us extra credit to attend, but I'd probably have gone anyhow. I'm not sure how much I buy into his whole "Social Capital" theory yet, but it's intriguing at the very least.

Well, my request was denied by the Human Resources department, and I found out that I was lied to again! Since I'm about to be made permanent, I asked if the six months I was required to work before becoming eligible for tuition reimbursement would start the day I became permanent, or would be covered by my previous year of employment. I was told by Michelle that the previous year would count if I got written approval by my department head (the dean in my case) that the job was essentially the same. Her boss, Regina, had a different story today on the phone, that no such provision exists, and that it doesn't matter what I did before, the six months starts the first day I'm made permanent. I suggested to her that she inform her staff of the proper regulations surrounding temporary employees, since this is the second time I've been given wrong information by her staff. Obviously, from now on, I'll be getting everything in writing from this department, as they've proven themselves to be extremely unreliable.

It may take a few tries, but Microsoft eventually gets it right. I've been playing around with Windows Media Player 7 for the last couple of weeks, and I'm impressed. I used it to copy all of my CD's to my hard drive, which used up 6GB of disk space, but now I have 100 CD's of music here with me at work, and my CD's are at home. I don't know how well the Mac version works, but the Windows version is quite slick. It downloaded the track names for all of my music as I was ripping the audio, then organized them by both artist, and album, so you can always find what you're looking for. The streaming video function works well, and the player doesn't try to take over my entire system, unlike the shoddy RealPlayer, which is more of a worm than an application.

I stuck a Gore - Lieberman image on my site this morning. I found it rather annoying that they didn't have any nice ones pre-made for me to use, so I just stole the one off of the campaign site. If I'd felt like it, I could have registered to have them make me a page, but all I really wanted was a button. So, it's pretty apparent who I'm going to vote for. McCain would have had a legitimate shot at getting my vote, but there's no way I'm voting for George W. Bush. In the last ten elections, the person ahead in the polls on Labor Day won the election, so things bode well for Gore at this point. I'll get down off my soap box now, and return you to your regular web programming.