Rites of passage

Remember this post? Tell me friends, where was your intervention when I needed it? You might say the sea of evidence – the little thing we call “common knowledge” – makes a personal warning redundant, but remember who you’re dealing with.

During an 18 hour stretch this weekend I:

1. Did a clean installation of Windows.
2. Had it crash.
3. Searched through (way too many) Windows discussion boards.
4. Doubled my personal record for google searches in a day.
5. Spent two and a half hours on the phone with Microsoft tech support.
6. Got a few personal anecdotes about the effects of global warming on New Delhi.
7. Wiped an old installation and did a clean re-install.

I feel like an Old Milwaukee commercial.

And here’s the insult added to my Mac’s injury: given the choice between XP and Vista, I chose Vista.

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I want to give some credit where credit is due. While I had a lot of trouble with the software, my experience with Microsoft’s outsourced technical support went really well. Even though my problem wasn’t solved (I didn’t hold against him, considering the product he was supporting), the guy was still somewhat helpful, very nice and really patient.