The vagaries of IT work

Up until today I was pretty sure that I would never hate an IT product as much as I hate IBM WebSphere, but I think we have a new winner: SAP Netweaver v7. Just installing the damn thing is like trying to thread a needle while someone is stabbing you repeatedly in the face, and every time you look at him for guidance he says “nuh-huh, no hints!” Oh, and it can *only* use a version of Java that Sun has already announced is EOL’d. Literally your JVM must be between 1.4.2_08 and 1.5.0, exclusive. Why is “bloody impossible to get going” become a positive attribute for computer systems in the past few years?.. When has that become a good thing?

Why make even a few users nervous if you don’t have to?

I’m restoring the original software on my HP tx1218 tonight and came across something I found amusing: HP makes driver installer, called the File Based Installer. Now this doesn’t seem all that amusing, and in itself it isn’t, but note the initials, it’s going to be relevant. And at least mildly interesting.

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