Thursday, November 05, 2020
The Computing Horror
I use the Corporate Overlords' mananged Microsoft Windows laptop to log into the Corporate Overlord's VPN at least once a week to let it update itself and reboot it as many times as it wants (if I go too long, the Corporate Overlords' will assume the laptop has been stolen, remotely nuke it from orbit and swamp me with paperwork). I also use it to punch my timecard. I don't use it for programming because the Ft. Lauderdale Office of the Corporation uses Apple Macs for that.
Oh, and I use the Corporate Overlords' mananged Microsoft Windows laptop to attend meetings via Microsoft Teams. I use a web interface for work email—yes, it's Microsoft Lookout for the web and given that I use Apple Macs (and before that, Linux) at work, it was easier to use that than to try to interface a non-Windows email client with Microsoft Exchange. The meeting notices are sent via email and contain the link to the Microsoft Teams meeting.
Now the laptop, being managed, was “set up” so I could use it from the start. And for reasons I don't understand, there are two different versions of Microsoft Internet Exploder installed on the system, and they both show up on the program bar across the bottom of the screen. I found out the hard way that one of the two Microsoft Internet Exploders refuses to work with Microsoft Teams. I click the link and … no meeting, even when Microsoft Teams is already running! I nearly missed a meeting until my manager directly invited me via Microsoft Teams.
I learned that the second Microsoft Internet Exploder would happily connect to the meeting. All I have to do now is recognize which blue “E” to use to attend Microsoft Teams based meetings.
Another weird thing happened with the laptop—it was warning me that I wasn't using the proper power brick for charging and to please use the power brick that came with the unit. The only thing was, I was using the power brick that came with the unit.
Sigh.
The fix?
Use a different electrical outlet, I kid you not.
But by then, both batteries were less than 1% charged, and the computer was trying in vain to charge one battery for a few seconds, then the other battery for a few seconds, back and forth, back and forth.
Until it shut off.
At that point, I felt like I was computer illiterate, not knowing how to deal with this … this … thing in front of me. It's stressful that I'm working for the computer, and not with the computer.
It's a horrible feeling.
In the end, I let it just sit there and eventually, the batteries charged up. But I just can't shake this feeling that I'm computer illiterate when it comes to this computer.
