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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: SecularBull who wrote (155853)	6/26/2001 12:06:22 PM
From: goldworldnet	Respond to of 769670

One of the annoying things about Bill Gates is that he seems to think he owns my computer. This attitude toward my property is far too common today. __________________________________________________________ Microsoft to me: We're turning off your Office David Coursey, Executive Editor, AnchorDesk PC EXPO, NEW YORK--A funny thing happened on the way to PC Expo: Microsoft killed my copy of Office. Or at least that's what the error message said, threatening me with something called "Reduced Functionality Mode" if I didn't immediately insert my original Office disc and have my software reactivated. "If you don't perform the reactivation steps, Microsoft Office will go into Reduced Functionality Mode. In that mode you will not be able to save modifications to documents, or create a new document, and additional functionality may be reduced" said the "help" screen attached to the error message. (The error itself could not be copied and pasted so I didn't save the exact language; I must say I was a little stunned). SO, HERE I AM, sitting in a jet at 34,000 feet someplace above God-only-knows-where, using my computer and minding my own business when Microsoft threatens to essentially shut down my copy of Office. And at the very start of a week-long business trip, too. Why did they do that? Here's what the help screen said: "Due to a significant change in your computer configuration from when Microsoft Office was installed and activated, some important information about your computer needs to be restored, and the product needs to be reactivated to continue to function properly." Hmm, the threatening message popped up while I was writing a column in one window and using Enfish OneSpace in another. I wonder if that had anything to do with it? But I'd installed Enfish weeks ago; funny the message should appear now. Or maybe it was the copy of Documents-to-Go I installed a few hours ago so I could load Word documents onto a Palm device. FRANKLY, I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I DID, if anything, to change the configuration of my computer. Nor should it be Microsoft's business if I did. As it stands, I am on an airplane, my original Office disk is 6 miles below and 2,200 miles behind me, and Microsoft has just told me that Office will die if I don't immediately reauthorize my copy. What a way to start a business trip! As soon as I land, I will drop an e-mail to people I know in the Office group at Microsoft in Redmond and see what they have to say about this. I am sure they have some, to them, logical reason why this happened. Something I did that changed the configuration of my computer. And it's not like they made good on the threat. I've rebooted and Office still seems to be working. But that's not the point. What I am wondering is this: Why would such a screen ever appear on the screen of someone using a legal copy of Microsoft Office? We'll see what Microsoft has to say zdnet.com * * *