To one and all who replied:
1) I have a fine grasp on reality, thanks very much.
2) I count a dozen messages on the front page alone with
problems similar to mine.
3) There ARE MS techs posting in here.
4) My assertiveness about my anger is because this
situation is being handled poorly by a multi-billion
dollar company. I am disabled on a fixed income who
relies on her computer for connections to the outside
world.
5) SO SORRY to have offended you with my assertive
anger, but, guess what. I've posted my problems with NO
RESPONSE. That is why I am angry. I spent HOURS on the
Microsoft Website (and yes, I knowledgeable enough to
navigate it - I've been working and programming on the
web for 10 frickin' years) trying to get an answer to a
simple question - where is the download when you click
the download button and why does the update icon just
disappear? It does this with all updates, but usually
only for a couple of minutes until the download starts.
I have been waiting for over 24 hours now for my icon to
return.
Before you condemn my manners, look at my other posts
which were a little calmer because I had not yet reached
my boiling point.
And as for the monitoring of this room, I completely
disagree that techs need not monitor it. Most times,
that would be fine, but not during the download and
installation of such a critical update. I didn't spend
my money on XP to be attacked by all these worms (thank
goodness I've taken steps to avoid the worst so far, but
we're not out of the woods yet), and it is up to
MICROSOFT to fix the problem with this awful architecture
(and that IS ultimately why it IS so vulnerable, for all
their billions they didn't invest in new code for XP,
they just keep building on top of the old code and
hackers know the code cold). It is not up to me to spend
money I do not have to send an email to MS because they
were too short-sighted to include these issues in their
FAQs and to monitor this site during this critical
critical update.
If they're not paid to monitor it, then they need invest
40 grand out of their billions into a human being to
oversee the technical issues on this newsgroup. There
are just some issues that even the most knowledgeable
peers cannot address.
And if you dislike my assertive anger, then IGNORE IT. I
don't have bad manners, I am just angry after spending a
day dealing with a website that is overwhelmed because I
suspect MS released this update too soon and now have a
website that is barely functioning. If you can do that
without losing your temper, then god bless. Not all of
us are that perfect. Frankly, we are all entitled to be
angry at MS right now because they have messed up very
badly on this whole situation, starting with the way they
wrote the code for XP.
Now I'm going to log off for a couple of days, and maybe
by then the freakin' download will be ready to start and
the stupid icon will stop teasing me by saying it's going
to update when it doesn't.
I finally decided to throw up my hands when I couldn't
even get the VM update (which I needed to reinstall) to
download properly this afternoon. Their system is
obviously overwhelmed, and us dial-up users are suffering
for it. Maybe it will be better in a couple of days
after the broadband people are finished with their
downloads.
And, oh yes, I will post here any darn time I please.
You think my manners are "bad" then you've been living in
a bubble. Being assertive in a stressful situation is
understandable for everyone, and I have seen much less
constructive assertiveness on newsgroups, list servs and
message boards all over the web - for much less important
issues as well.
Bottom line: Other posters are not entitled to dictate
ANYTHING to a anyone, let alone a person they do not know
and whose other posts they have obviously not read.
Suggest, recommend. That's what this group is here for.
But if you dictate to and make false assumptions about
people you do not know, you only make a bad situation
worse.
Goodbye for now.
