D.T. Goes Off: Windows and Cox Tech Staff (July 31, 2006)

Some people still use DOS 2.0 (I'm not making that up) as I heard Tom Leykis discuss on his radio show that the phone screening software he uses for his radio show works on the DOS 2.0 system from some year of 1985 and may not work for XP. Some prefer Windows 3.1, CP/M, OS/2, Atari ST, or whatever primative operating system they want to use to connect basically because the software that they use probably won't work on later computer OS's such as Windows XP or the upcoming Vista. Many businesses such as Dominos Pizza use some sort of primative operating system I can't name to run its ordering software program to take phone orders and compile business reports. The monitors used are a throwback from 1985: amber or green monochrome monitors. I'm not joking. Miami Vice was popular when Leykis and Dominos's software programs came out. Now that the Miami Vice movie came out, guess what? They're still using the same 1985 programs! The point is: if it's not broken, why upgrade? Will Leykis's screening software work on XP? It could if he hires a computer programmer that could convert the code so that it could work under XP. Will Domino's upgrade their software? Maybe not. They gotta save some money here and there so they can continue to sell those cheap pies and get market share from Papa John's and Pizza Hut. There's no need to spend $50,000,000 to outfit all of the franchises and owned outlets with a new colorful operating system. Oh no. The old CP/M or whatever OS-based Dominos software still works fine as it is. Why waste the money upgrading it when it still works?

This leads me to the dictatorship practices of Microsoft Corporation, which sucks and, like Clear Channel, Burger King, and all cellphone companies, will always suck. How many people reading this are using Windows 98SE like me, or even Windows ME? How about Windows 98 the first edition? Well guess what? Microsoft has dropped support from these operating systems, like they have with earlier OSs like Windows 95 (remember when it once had a grand party to celebrate its launch?), Windows 3.1, DOS 6.2, DOS 5, etc. Microsoft can drop support from the earlier systems and that is fine.

What is not fine, however, is that Microsoft is using its dictatorship like Adolf Hitler in telling ZoneAlarm to no longer support or create software that works on Windows 98/SE/ME. Microsoft has also told Cox that they're not allowed to help their customers who still use Windows 98/SE/ME either as Microsoft has withdrawn Cox's right to dispense helpful information to troubleshoot computers that are still using these operating systems. Since when did a law pass that forbid a company from helping out a customer with an older OS? Isn't this practice illegal? Where is there a good lawyer to sue Microsoft?

What's stopping a company from making software that works for an older operating system? Is there a law against it? If so, where is it?

The reason I still use Windows 98SE is that I use some older software I wrote for the now-defunct QBASIC programming language that works under Windows 98SE, but probably won't work under Windows XP. The QBASIC program works in the DOS kernel, and nobody has managed to write QBASIC for Windows that will work under XP or later. I created a few dozen QBASIC software applications that help me create many webpages that I have over four of my domains that you see on davesfunstuff.com, eightisenough.com, sandiegoradionews.com, and dfsxradio.com, as well as subdomains for the above four main domains. The pages that are generated by some sort of QBASIC program number in the tens of thousands, with subjects ranging from DFSX playlists to Celebrity Birthdays to some .js script pages generated to display banners and ads. I even searched the Internet to see if anybody has written a QBASIC or even a QUICKBASIC for Windows program for years but with no positive results.

So without getting QBASIC to work under XP and Vista, chances are great that I will be stuck with a computer running Windows 98SE until I reach Social Security age in 21 years.

I have seen a software program that might be a substitute for QBASIC, but requires a lot of work searching for, to put in computer progammer's terms, keywords that are not supported, illegal variables that are used as keywords, syntax that has to be rewritten, and other advanced topics that are far beyond the scope of this topic. I bought the software called Powerbasic Console Compiler 4.01 and the book that comes with it for an additional fee. I spent a week looking through the booklet and the help files and forums on the website powerbasic.com and decided that it was money well worth spent. I already converted two of my shorter programs to PowerBasic from QBASIC, compiled them into EXE files, and ran them without relaunching the Powerbasic shell. They work under Windows 98 and later, but could work under 95 as well. Powerbasic Console Compiler, as they said, runs my basic programs as if it were QBASIC, that is, it runs a MS-DOS like display, right down to the way the program feels. There's more about it, but just go to powerbasic.com and read the pages there.

Now getting to the Cox tech staff, they have won numerous awards for their high speed internet service, but just last night, it wasn't a five-star service. All of the humidity made it sound more like a two-star service.

Last night at 7pm when I got home, I turned on the computer but the modem would not connect to the Internet. I called tech the first time and she told me that I need a new modem since (besides calling from out of nowhere) she could not talk to my computer even after rerebooting the computer and modem. She told me to release some IP addresses but the computer gave me and error. I rebooted and I got some error and still no Internet. I guess she didn't know that I was running Windows 98 and gave me some information that could have messed up my connection with misguided information. It was like Hewlett Packard's service rep from China telling me to reformat my hard drive and reinstall Windows because a sound card DLL was missing instead of telling me what it was.

I called another tech an hour later for confirmation and that time at 8pm I got a message saying that my cable service was out. The male tech rep told me that I may need a new modem. He also gave me a phone number that would help me out if I pay a techie some $40 an hour for the job. Talk about poor service, Cox takes the cake for giving out bad advice.

A half hour later, the modem connected to the internet and I rebooted the computer. The connection works fine now.

I guess I can't trust tech support anymore by phone.

I am disappointed in the performance of the Cox tech staff and I was told by two of them that I need a new modem without understanding that being told by Cox in San Diego that service was out in my area.

I almost planned to get up to go to a Cox store to get a new modem which may not necessarily work with Windows 98 as I fear nowdays that nothing I buy today will work with a computer with Win 98 anymore.

Cox needs to do a better job informing the tech help crew about a service outage before dispensing misinformed information to a customer that would have wasted money on a modem that they didn't need to buy because it can't connect to a network if the service was clearly at fault.

Now let's reboot up that good old Atari 800XL operating system and connect to a BBS using a 300 baud modem just for old times sake. Is there a way to connect that to the Internet? Anyone care? Cox could if there was a consumer demand for such a primiative slow modem speed and OS, and chances are, Atari hasn't told anybody to not give tech support to customers that are using any of the Atari OSs from the 90s and earlier.