I am not sure what is going on...I tried to sign on to MS Word to work on a new short story today. I got blocked by "them" and figured that it was time to pay some money. I try to deal only with those online entities where the transaction is easy and seamless. The rest only get CASH.
I may have already shot myself in the foot. They wanted my address, and phone number and kept sending me verification codes until stopped suffering the fools. I may have to make a trip to my bank, only 1-2 miles away to get it sorted.
I am in lots of pain right now and had planned to go to my Doctor to get a shot of Tramadol to break the pain. The shot is an opiate, so I am not sure what will happen... In the last decade, I have done this single shot thing twice and it has worked a treat. Hopefully there will be time for both ???
God, help me.
Ahabidah, Gwen Brown, or what ever...
Comments
Stop faffing around with Microshaft
Download LibreOffice and get on with work. No fees, no license hassles.
MS, like Adobe and the rest are just becoming more trouble than they are worth. Avoid at all costs.
Samantha
MS Word
This morning around 3:30 am (around 10:30 or so am), I was still able to write and print 3 copies of the request to my Doctor for a standing prescription of "Tramadol shot (1)". You likely call it something else.
Eff you Microsoft.
Gwen Brown, or whatever. :)
Writing on the wall
I saw the proverbial writing on the wall of the Microsoft grift just over 20 years ago, and pull the proverbial ripcord!
It was around 2003 that I abandoned MSOffice97 (in my opinion the best version M$ has ever produced regarding features and ease of use) and switched to OpenOffice/LibreOffice. There was one [very advanced and esoteric] feature that I lost in the switch. But I have gained alternate workarounds in the Open Source Software market. And you can use almost all Open Source Software on either M$ Windows, Apple OS/X or Linux, with transparent data migration between all three platforms.
Around the turn of the millennium I have carefully read all the small print on the Microsoft license agreements. Even the Windows license stated that the user granted M$ a royalty free use of any and all intellectual property for their own use without even having to acknowledge the source, that is stored on any system that runs any M$ software. Not an issue as long as computers are NOT connected to the Internet. But it started to become an issue as soon as online software activation became a requirement.
Apparently most cloud storage providers have a similar policy. Especially with the so-called “free accounts”. And if they decide to discontinue the service, get bought out or go bankrupt, then all your data-files and intellectual property is gone with the wind.
My suggestion: Download the current LibreOffice installer for your particular platform. Install LibreOffice on your computer. Save your files on your own computer hard disk. Make copies at regular intervals to several external hard drives and USB sticks that you keep in your physical possession. If possible, delete your files from cloud storage after copying to several local media. As much as possible, bail away from M$ software. (I know that there are specialized applications that are not yet available as Open Source Software, so you might be stuck with Windows or OS/X.)
Cloud Storage
I refuse to use cloud storage anywhere; especially "Onedrive." I don't even use the Samsung cloud storage to backup my phone. Putting stuff in the cloud is an invitation for others to see it, copy it and use it as they see fit.
With the availability of Tera Byte flash drives, there's no reason to back up your computer any other way. I can't think of a device that I can't use a flash drive on that I'd need that information on.
I personally use a SanDisk - Ultra Fit 512GB flash drive. It's password protected and small enough that it can live in a USB port on my laptop without causing any more obstruction than my wireless mouse USB. It only takes a couple of minutes to backup all my data files.
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Ich bin ein femininer Mann
Corporate "security" and cloud storage
Back before I retired, I worked for a company that used and wrote a lot of software (for their own use.) They had all kinds of security policies, which as usual made my work harder. But they wanted everything to be put in the cloud, and used MS software for most of it, which IMHO basically negated any security they might have gained from making us jump through all those hoops.
But then, most of the people running corporations, including those responsible for security (whether they know it or not), have no clue about security. It's all security theater, cargo-cult security mentality. Like most of the things the bosses do, it's about being able to say you've done whatever the latest management fad calls for.
Clouds are temporary
both in real life and in IT
I worked for a company where we had to put all released code into [drum roll please] a sharepoint instance that was in Atlanta. We duly did that and provided screen shots of the upload.
About a month later no one could find the code in the sharepoint instance.
Thankfully, us brits saw the folly of that and had multiple physical backups on our servers based in West London.
This was all to conform to their new Agile/Scrum development methodology. All our projects in Europe were run by the developers. At most there were two people working on the code. We didn't follow their scrum mantra. Employing even a part time scrum manager would have blown the budgets.
Clouds are only good when they drop wet stuff on you. Then they are gone forever.
I could rant for hours about cloud storage and its failures. IMHO, the only safe cloud is on-premises cloud. Then, you are in control of everything, not renting some storage from a bit barn.
Samantha