Of Search not being Search.

I am strongly tempted to say that the horde of Bill Gates' programmers who work on Search never saw the inside of a Computer Science class. The others who work on that Automatic Update thingie are bereft of manners. They have no idea of boundaries. Does Microsoft own the operating system after you buy it? For some reason I am not able to turn AutoUpdate off. Not without breaking some functionality. I have tried everything, registry tweaks, killing the process - zip zero. When I plug in my GPRS modem, autoupdate downloads sh*t with my knowledge! There is this one time that it run my surfing bill to Sh 990 in one session. Go figure.

The two features conspired to cause untold misery on my laptop. Something that calls itself Windows Desktop Search sneaked itself into the system. What does it do? It calls itself "Search" but does anything but.

I am watching Soul Central on NTV when a song called "Stomp" comes up. I can't exactly recall the artist but I know I have the song on my drive somewhere. I go to my music folder and type in *Stomp* and hit "Enter". Nothing. Copied *Stomp* to the box next to the green button up there. Nothing.
Look at the screen below:


I go to the SOUL folder and spot the song.


Right at the top of the list. I decide to find out just how dumb the program is and do another search in precisely the folder the song is in. Nothing. Why bother putting in the other terms for narrowing the search (like From, Author)? The basic filename search is not working! They have done a great paint job, look at the blue bar there. Very cute.

Ohh wait. There is something down there. To the left, closed in a nice red box. "This folder is not indexed". What does that mean to Joe, who is forty years old, an average computer user who just wants his spreadsheets to work? What about to Jennifer, who is a secretary and can swear that she typed in the report but can't find it and the boss is standing next to her demanding to have it printed? Who reads these stupid messages? Why have that "Folder" textbox then? It further says ...to search this directory please use Search Companion...Oh? where to find that Search Companion now? It is not obvious that this is a link to be followed. At this point the secretary starts crying and pleading with the boss ...

So it is Search Companion now? OK. It works. It finds my song.

[don't mind the blotting - the folder is shared and some folk would make me immediately]
Who needs this "Windows Desktop Search" thing? Why does the OS need to index anything? How much possible space can the file allocation tables take up? Has Microsoft never heard of AI, usability?

To removing or disabling "Windows Desktop Search".

To other not so irritating things
Yesterday's clash (Arsenal vs Manchester United),..totally not good for the heart. Some got heartbroken while others had theirs running at thrice the speed. Yikes! I got thoroughly plastered (not an easy thing for me - my body recognizes alcohol as a normal friendly substance and refuses to be unduly disturbed by it). Cause and effect.

Why do these NGOs carry on with this voter enlightenment cr*p? And these Nigerian online fraudsters,..do they imagine they can con anyone in this day and age? Some spam legislation should be put in place somewhere...some class action,..something.