When Microsoft stole Valentine's Day

Today started out pretty much like any other work day. Tonight, however, turned slightly sour once the Microsoft software incompatibility demons stepped in to foil our Valentine's Day. This morning I slyly delivered my completely unwrapped gift to Sarah by placing it on her computer desk without her knowing. As she brought in her morning bowl of cereal she saw that I'd bought her a DVD set of the obscure (and hastily canceled) show on Fox called Wonderfalls. The set is actually pretty cool since Fox only aired three or four episodes but filmed 13 total, all of which are available in this set. It'll give her something to watch when she leaves for New Orleans tomorrow for work.

After the merry gift giving of this morning we went to work then had a nice dinner tonight that consisted of BLTs and some fabulous chocolate-covered strawberries she picked up at the nearby Stadium Thriftway. These things were huge (nearly fist-sized) and very tasty both inside and out. We planned to spend the evening relaxing together because the rest of our week looks pretty hectic from here: Sarah leaves for New Orleans tomorrow until Friday, I leave for Vancouver B.C. to help move Matt up to school Friday and Saturday, Sarah takes the train down to Vancouver, WA on Saturday to spend some time with her sister on her birthday, I drive all the way down to meet her and spend the rest of the weekend helping my mom and uncle clean up my Grandma's house. Whew! See what I mean?

You could imagine my thrill when some minor work Sarah brought home to accomplish turned into a major headache. I chalk this one up to Microsoft. Disclaimer: Microsoft isn't all bad nor has it done all bad thing -- I just think they could use some advice in the "love" category. Today's issue stems from a pure lack of compatibility from one version of a program to the next. Sarah needed to put together some maps in Mappoint and print them out to take to Nawlins with her. Sounds simple enough. Too bad the file she was editing at work was saved in the 2004 version while she only has the mere 2002 version here at home. Gasp! A Microsoft program that isn't compatible with its own version made only two years prior? Now, some of you may contend that a program made in 2002 can't predict what future versions may come out and, thus, can't be compatible with any the come down the road. Hogwash. It's a little thing called foresight. I've seen other older programs open newer versions of files. They simply take the new format and strip it back to whatever the older version can handle. You may not get the latest and far less used features of the newest ones but most folks don't push the limits when it comes to the latest features in Office XP -- they just want to type, center, bold and spellcheck some things.

Anyway, Sarah had to go back into work tonight and send me those maps to print. She didn't get back until well after 10pm then had to pack for leaving tomorrow. I'm not bitter about doing little on this pre-fab, Hallmark holiday especially since we just got married and had a wonderful honeymoon. We don't need a tick on the calendar to remind us how much we're in love with one another.

Comments (2) | To Top

2/19/2005 @ 9:03am

I didn't read the MS stole Valentines Day writeup, because it was wordier than I was willing to put up with.

I'm sure there was substance in there somewhere, and I saw the word "versions" somewhere down in the middle. But it was buried in with what you had for dinner that night.

I'm sure MS did something that annoyed you, they do it to me all the time.

I do agree with you on one thing though; Firefox rocks!

by Chuck

10/22/2005 @ 9:10am

Love is a path to the heart that knows its own way.

by Lamar Cole