As soon as I learned about the release of Windows Media Player 11, I went to the download section of Microsoft. Always, I want to try out new software – it’s one of the habits I want to change because of the vast amount of time wasted on internet, exploring things like these. I’m telling you, if I had started to write, instead of buying a computer in the first place, then by this date I’d have written a book three times thicker than Lord of the Rings. I'm serious but let's talk business first. So, this time it was the beta release of wmp 11, and some forums on the net discussing this topic had quoted, among other things, “…a lot of bugs, and most importantly, will give you blue screen of death”. One user had even written, “It’s a total waste of time – go ahead, kill your time.”
“Should I download after reading such messages?” Definitely not – after all, it was beta in the first place, and next, the reviews were not suggestive either; and third, being a freeware beta, it had not appeared on download sites. Hmm… but who cares? It’s just a program, if you like it you keep it, otherwise throw it away. Therefore I went to the DOWNLOAD NOW button and pressed it – some notes appeared, the download size was 23 megs – which was going to be a problem because it was already past midnight and I was dog-tired. “Maybe I’ll download tomorrow”; but then, I wanted to see it and test it, so there was no point in going to bed. “Tomorrow is Friday and I can sleep all day.”
My mind finally found the perfect excuse – I have to sort those stuffs which have been in my hard drive forever – actually I’ve tried to avoid it as long as possible because the folder (named Depot) containing at least 200 programs, mp3s, e-books, pictures and links, is around 7.38 gigs. This looks like a mountain of data to me that needs sorting out - checking individual programs, going through each mp3 or picure - just thinking of this makes me annoyed. This folder was from Navin’s collection, initially. As a matter of fact, this 7.38 gigs of unsorted stuffs is just a tiny fraction of Navin’s 360 gigabyte of digital content, which is mostly a good heap of the rarest stuffs not even available on the net. This is another long story for some other time; let’s get back to wmp 11 for now.
So there I was, eagerly counting the download percentage, 1%...2%...3%... and so on. It seemed to be a long, long night occupying a painful wait and an eagerness too pathetic to kill. Sometimes I feel that switching to ADSL would minimize the wait time and lower telephone bills, but then again, I won’t be able to stop myself from downloading bigger programs or watching HD videos, or listen to songs all the time – after all they say in Nepali, JATI BHANDO UTI CHUBURKO, meaning, the more utensils you have, the more cleaning you have to do – oh, how truly right this is!
Another packet of chips, the clock showed 3:03 am and the download was 87% and counting up. The connection seemed to be weak: 2.1 kbps at the moment, although it had started with 5.2 kbps. The remaining 13% would be no problem at all for the person who had downloaded 87% already with the bonus of an aching back. Besides, I had already left sorting stuffs on that folder called Depot and moved on to find out the font that Google used. After some site-hopping it appeared to be Catull font, priced at 99 dollars. Oh, really? Then I’d better forget about it because even if I had 99 dollars, I’d happily donate it rather than buy a font. Therefore the closest kin of Google in Catull appeared to be Google in Book Antiqua, tweaked in Photoshop.
It looked somewhat similar at a glance, but in reality there are a lot of differences, like the 'g' and the 'e', that are totally diverse. But I was hap
py with the logo I made, actually Manu even suggested of submitting it to Google as a fan logo. But at that time I was also excited about wmp 11, which was already downloaded 100% a few moments ago. Thus, I closed Photoshop, signed out of messenger, ended the ping session and was going to install and see windows media player 11 at 4:00 am in the morning. The installation began and I'd like to show you this image which is a part of installation progress.
This third step appeared as soon as I accepted the Terms of Use, which was even before the real installation had begun. View this to believe this. Conclusion: Never, never download windows media player 11 beta versoin at midnight on a dial up connection, especially when you want to sleep. Right now all I can think about is a slogan, FREE YOUR MIND AND YOUR OS WILL FOLLOW.
“Should I download after reading such messages?” Definitely not – after all, it was beta in the first place, and next, the reviews were not suggestive either; and third, being a freeware beta, it had not appeared on download sites. Hmm… but who cares? It’s just a program, if you like it you keep it, otherwise throw it away. Therefore I went to the DOWNLOAD NOW button and pressed it – some notes appeared, the download size was 23 megs – which was going to be a problem because it was already past midnight and I was dog-tired. “Maybe I’ll download tomorrow”; but then, I wanted to see it and test it, so there was no point in going to bed. “Tomorrow is Friday and I can sleep all day.”
My mind finally found the perfect excuse – I have to sort those stuffs which have been in my hard drive forever – actually I’ve tried to avoid it as long as possible because the folder (named Depot) containing at least 200 programs, mp3s, e-books, pictures and links, is around 7.38 gigs. This looks like a mountain of data to me that needs sorting out - checking individual programs, going through each mp3 or picure - just thinking of this makes me annoyed. This folder was from Navin’s collection, initially. As a matter of fact, this 7.38 gigs of unsorted stuffs is just a tiny fraction of Navin’s 360 gigabyte of digital content, which is mostly a good heap of the rarest stuffs not even available on the net. This is another long story for some other time; let’s get back to wmp 11 for now.
So there I was, eagerly counting the download percentage, 1%...2%...3%... and so on. It seemed to be a long, long night occupying a painful wait and an eagerness too pathetic to kill. Sometimes I feel that switching to ADSL would minimize the wait time and lower telephone bills, but then again, I won’t be able to stop myself from downloading bigger programs or watching HD videos, or listen to songs all the time – after all they say in Nepali, JATI BHANDO UTI CHUBURKO, meaning, the more utensils you have, the more cleaning you have to do – oh, how truly right this is!
Another packet of chips, the clock showed 3:03 am and the download was 87% and counting up. The connection seemed to be weak: 2.1 kbps at the moment, although it had started with 5.2 kbps. The remaining 13% would be no problem at all for the person who had downloaded 87% already with the bonus of an aching back. Besides, I had already left sorting stuffs on that folder called Depot and moved on to find out the font that Google used. After some site-hopping it appeared to be Catull font, priced at 99 dollars. Oh, really? Then I’d better forget about it because even if I had 99 dollars, I’d happily donate it rather than buy a font. Therefore the closest kin of Google in Catull appeared to be Google in Book Antiqua, tweaked in Photoshop.
It looked somewhat similar at a glance, but in reality there are a lot of differences, like the 'g' and the 'e', that are totally diverse. But I was hap
py with the logo I made, actually Manu even suggested of submitting it to Google as a fan logo. But at that time I was also excited about wmp 11, which was already downloaded 100% a few moments ago. Thus, I closed Photoshop, signed out of messenger, ended the ping session and was going to install and see windows media player 11 at 4:00 am in the morning. The installation began and I'd like to show you this image which is a part of installation progress.This third step appeared as soon as I accepted the Terms of Use, which was even before the real installation had begun. View this to believe this. Conclusion: Never, never download windows media player 11 beta versoin at midnight on a dial up connection, especially when you want to sleep. Right now all I can think about is a slogan, FREE YOUR MIND AND YOUR OS WILL FOLLOW.
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