On second thought, all the curses are redundant. Windows is a curse in and of itself.
This particular rant was caused by something relatively minor: The time on the Windows clock. This morning, it was correct. Just a few minutes ago, I created a new install disk for some software and checked the create date and time to be sure I had the correct files before burning a CD. WTF? The files I just made have the wrong create time. Check the clock. The Windows clock is suddenly an hour behind. Setting it is no big deal, but why in HELL does windows have to fuck around like this?
Win98. It is not the clock battery. The computer was running the whole time, and windows just had a spontaneous brain fart. I wouldn’t have ranted like that about it if it were something simple like the battery. Besides, a weak battery wouldn’t cause a one hour change.
::crrrssskkk:: Agent SPOOFE to motherbase, SPOOFE to motherbase… are you there, Warlord Bill? Over.
::crrrrrssskk:: Affirmative, agent SPOOFE. What is the subject’s condition? Over.
::crrrrrrrrsssskkkss:: Subject is close to total mental collapse. Desire to commit mass murder is rising. Will continue to observe. Over.
::crrrssskkkk:: Well done, agent SPOOFE. Operation “Drive Mont Furd Nuts” is proceeding nicely. Prepare to move on to Phase 2… randomly renaming his files. Over.
::crrrrrsssskkk:: Will do, motherbase. Over and out.
Nah. Not mass murder. Not unless you define murder as “format C: and install Linux.”
I don’t even have the option of moving to Win2000 or WinXP. 95% of the software we run here at work is DOS stuff - some of it as much as fifteen years old.
DOSEmu doesn’t help either - the programs go directly to the hardware in most cases (serial port stuff, mostly.) The crappy things use software timing loops, too, which causes no end of fun in a true multitasking environment.
This morning I was perusing my e-mail when I happened to run across an article about this very problem. Maybe it’ll help.
In the first solution, the author (Fred Langa- The Langa List) fields questions from readers attributing the problem to owning a Dell (As if owning one on its own isn’t bad enough). Apparently it’s so wide spread Dell has even come up with a fix (Langa Newsletter 5-13-2002 - “Weird problem solved”).
The second theory, or fix, comes straight from Microsoft and it deals with the default settings of your clock when you originally set it up (Microsoft Database - The time may decrease…").
Maybe one of these two just might help you out. If so, cool. If not… then fuck I wasted a lot of time!
Do you run a Gnutella client? I’ve found that most if not all the gnutella clients I’ve used (like Bearshare) causes the clock to act funny, usually only slowing down though.
I use the “Beatnik Internet Clock” which corrects the time with NIST every so often, at an interval you configure. http://somedec.com/downloads/
