Hey folks, it's I again, the Random Thinker! I figured I should post an article about the latest and "greatest" thing that just came out by Microsoft. Yup, if you guessed it, it's the Service Pack 2. There has been alot of banter, debates and whining about this latest installment. Oh, for those of you who are completely clueless, the Service Pack-2 is a major update for the Windows XP operating system. I guess in a sense it's like a re-invented XP.....but for the worse? But who knew.......except I, from my personal experience.

Well, the day it came out and was distributed amongst the users that had the live update going, I got the little pop-up saying that it's ready to install. So there I was, debating, pondering, procrastinating and determining whether or not it's worth it for me to install that. The facts are, there has been alot of issued warnings against installing it from a number of "big wigs" such as IBM themselves. Well, but then again, IBM had only tested the beta releases of the sp2 and had some major conflictions with their equipments. So IBM warned all it's employees who utilize XP, not to install the sp2 as of now. Yahoo! gave caution that some of it's applications had failed to operate properly under the sp2 such as their Yahoo Messenger and a few other programs. HP gave a serious warning for all owners of their computers to install the latest drivers and updates before installing the sp2. As well, there was and are dozens upon dozens of gripes, complaints and warnings from the general public about how bad it is but very few that said it was an improvement. So as you can see, I was quite distraught as to experiencing it or not. Well, after what seemed an hour or two at just staring into the screen at the same text, "your updates are ready to install", I finally decided, oh, what the hell, I'll give it a shot, afterall, I can always go back and do the system restore.

I clicked the update and began the installation.......which took about 10 minutes or so, then I rebooted while crossing my fingers, my toes and even the chopsticks I had laying on my desk....(after I scraped off last weeks food). Now was the time to see if it had a serious impact on my laptop or not. So there it's rebooting....no difference yet.........suddenly the desktop is there in view........no difference yet.........and then......I notice something! How odd, have I noticed that before? Are my eyes playing tricks on me? No no, I'm sure it's always been like that before........the text under each icon being jagged. So I move on, deciding to check other things so the first thing I do is open up Internet Explorer..........AND HOLY FREAKIN' CRAP!! The texts are all freakin' screwed up! It's the wrong size, more jagged than a freakin' cliff and it's completely the wrong font! Okay, no prob, so I get over my initial shock and go into the options to change the font style and stuff. Well, the prob was, it was the same settings as I had it before the sp2 was installed. It said that it was "Times New Roman" and medium size! Okay, no biggy.........ya right!! I spent about 2 hours going throughout my whole computer trying to remedy it but nothing! And worse yet, it wasn't just Internet Explorer! It was the whole computer! Every text on the computer showed up jagged and ugly! And yes, the text under my icons were not my imaginations, even that too! To make a long story short, my CD/DVD drive failed to burn half the time, my Opera browser would not open, my Yahoo Messenger would not log on, the Norton Antivirus said it wasn't installed and a slew of other problems! Oh and by the way, MY LAPTOP IS HP!! But the biggest thing that really got me steaming from the ears was that Internet Explorer blocked harmless java applets, Active X applications and some javascripts all in the name of "protecting" your computer!! What the f*ck is that about!!? I happen to be a web designer and god d*mn those who try to disrupt my works! I write legitimate scripts that will benefit the viewer and allow user friendly options. For example, on my Poetry page, I write a script that will make the viewable screen area maximum size in order to see more of the poetry text without having to scroll. As well, I open up pop-up windows for form submissions, notes, and tips but after installing sp2, none of that worked because it was being blocked in the name of protection! oh man I was irate! If Microsoft is going to be playing God, they need to be alot smarter and allow Internet Explorer to distiguish between legitimate scripts, Active-x, Java Applets and those that are truly bad! Come on Microsoft, I want a recall!

Anyhow, I decided I didn't need the sp2 so I went ahead and did a system restore. Unless Microsoft does something to really improve on the new sp2, I will not install it even if it is a major security enhancement. I'm quite happy as it is. Soooo, all you XP users out there, beware! Or either that, just watch out and be ready to do a system restore if you are going to install the sp2. And on a final note: DAMN YOU MICROSOFT!!