You Know You've Been a Unix Admin Too Long When...

[ehowton]

I've had some challenges at work lately, and they all revolve around Internet Explorer. Earlier, attempting to fulfill my annual online ethics & security training, I discovered that IE11 far surpassed the supported version we're allowed to run, IE8 (this, despite working for a Top-Tier technologies company - but I digress). Naturally, I did what any of you would have done - I dusted off (literally) my old Win98 Second Edition CDROM and installed a VirtualMachine, getting as far as a gorgeous 32-bit 1280x1024 desktop (even installed Plus!) before I found Oracle's guest additions don't run on Win98.

My next step was equally as obvious when I carved out some space on my ESX host - VMware tools does (unofficially) run and load (kinda) - at least enough for networking! But that's when I discovered Win98 shipped with IE5 - not IE8 (I had no idea - who can even remember that far back?) - and was unable to upgrade for a whole host of topographical machine-language emulation reasons even I didn't fully understand.

At wits end, I tested an even more far-fetched theory and discovered IE11 ("its a new browser, it might just surprise you") ran the training just fine in something called, "Compatibility Mode."

But I hit my new low today when I called my boss, and asked him how to bookmark a webpage.

(Note to self: Its an orange star on the far right of the page, under the address bar.)

Comments

[michelle1963.livejournal.com]

Good to know! I don't know how to bookmark in the new IE either (I use Chrome and occasionally Firefox). However my employer demands the use of iE inside our Moka5 VM, so.....

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

The bookmark question corresponded with IE8, not IE11. That said, if I understood him correctly, it changes from version to version. I'm sure someone, somewhere, has a perfectly reasonable explanation for this.

[raingirl26.livejournal.com]

"perfectly reasonable explanation"? surely you jest...

ironically, i've just started usīng a surface tablet and except for one japanese or chinese app browser, there's only IE available. it's the main thing that bugs me about the setup as i'm a chrome user all the way. i was able to have a much cleaner look to everything thanks to my daughter's expertise and now i'm back to, well, IE. and while it's the newest, i also have the hardest time figuring out the bookmark situation, having to reremember everytime and then reremember shere to fing them to go to them. my poor brain. i realized the other day that it's not actually learning something new that's hard for me, it's learning the many multiple ways of doing the same thing that's confusing. my brain hasn't figured out how to sort that information in a logical way yet.
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[ehowton.livejournal.com]

Absolutely. For myself, knowing why something is done the way its done usually helps my understanding.

[raingirl26.livejournal.com]

oh yea, the why of it all.