Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Microsoft: Laughing all the Way to the Bank

I like to mess around with digital graphics. And I'm a little bit of a computer program geek. Granted, I don't know much - just a little of this, and a little of that - enough to have fun with various programs.

This is why a program manual is a necessity for me.

In the past few years, I have noticed that fewer and fewer program manufacturers give the customer an actual printed manual. The trend has moved to online manuals and tutorials.

But now, some of the manufacturers are not even doing that!!!

They have a new scheme. Forcing the customers to muddle their way through and figure it out for themselves, or even worse, forcing them to resort to buying a printed manual.

This is a great scheme folks. These people are laughing all the way to the bank, I tell you!

Yesterday, I broke down and bought Microsoft Office Publisher 2007.


Yea me! Lucky me! Just think of all the neat stuff I can do now!

Well, yes, if I knew how. Publisher does not have an online manual included with the program. They do have a few online tutorials, but heck, there's nothing like a hard copy manual with an index.

So, I went to Amazon and looked to see if they had a "For Dummies" for Publisher. Yes, they do:

$16.49 brand new.

But, ah ha - look what else they have for $16.49:


So, here's the missing manual!

Microsoft is smart. They see the Dummies folks making money on the manual writing business. So, they figured they'd compete.

They now have a Microsoft Press, and it publishes the Step by Step series for all of its products!!!

Microsoft - you suck.

You know what I'm going to do?

I'm going to let everyone I know put the software I bought on their computer.

Heck, I might even sell it for a nice discounted price :)


Image from acctaxpayers.com

Okay readers. I'm off to Amazon to buy the Dummies manual. I refuse on principle to buy any manual from Microsoft Press.

I'll put my new Publisher manual on my bookshelf next to this one:

6 comments:

Br00ke said...

Mabrook! I really like the stuff I can do with Publisher, but would still like to take it even higher, inshAllah. When I have time, I like the online tutorials.

>I'm going to let everyone I know put the software I bought on their computer.

Well, err, some of us have tried that and it really is protected. Can only get onto a couple PCs.
L&P

Ms.Unique said...

LOL ... dats soooooooooo hilarious Sis ... yeah these ppl are sooooooo smart ....

Anonymous said...

assalamu alaikum,

I am interested to know why you didnt stick with Judaism. Is it true they are not truely monotheists? I looked through your blog for more of a comparison of Judaism and Islam - i.e what you found to be more truthful in Islam than Judaism but i couldnt find it (maybe i missed it)

What lead you to accept Islam over Judaism? It would be useful to hear from an ex-Jewish person a refutation (in the nicest possible way) of Judaism and what flaws you found in it. It is rare to hear about Judaism from an insiders perspective and what it is really about.

Thanks

Safiyyah said...

@ Br00ke - well, I'll give it to as many as I can, lol

@ Ms. Unique - yea right? Any way to make a buck at the people's expense

@ Anonymous - I have various posts on here about that. But, I just recently started to use tags. When I get some time Insha Allah I'll tag all those posts with "Judaism."

The biggest reason I came to Islam is this - My mom was Catholic and my Dad was Jewish. I was raised in both religions, but primarily as a Jew. I always felt like something was lackin in both of them, couldn't put my finger on it until I started studying Islam (after marrying a Muslim). Then, it all fell in place. The main thing was not believing that Jesus (as) was God or the son of God. But, also not willing to not believe in him as a prophet (i.e., Jews don't recognize him). Insha Allah that makes sense until I can get the tags done. Thanks for stopping by :)

Safiyyah said...

Oh Anonymous - yes, Jews are monotheists. The Shema is a testimony of it sort of like the first part of the Shahadah:

Shema Yisroel, Adonoi Elohenu Adonoi Echod (Judaism)

Hear oh Israel, the Lord our God is One

Ashadu en laillaha illah (Islam)

There is no god but Allah

sorry if I slaughtered the transliteration of the Hebrew and Arabic

Judaism is truly a beautiful religion in a lot of ways, but Allah (swt) brought me to Islam, Alhamdulillah.

Debora said...

LOL! MS certainly does bite the big one sometimes.

Shaking my head... Had a class yesterday about $$$ damages for copyright infringement. Lotsa moolah. Plus attorney's fees.