\jeff{krimmel}

Microsoft Sticks It To The Red Cross

Ariele and I donated blood yesterday at a Red Cross blood drive on campus. We had appointments at 11:30am, and we arrived about 5 minutes early. After reading some instructional materials, each of us were called to go answer a few questions with one of the nurses.

I walked with the nurse around a curtain and sat down next to a makeshift desk. The nurse had a laptop that she was using to collect my name, address, and other personal information. After recording that information, she had to send it to the printer. I’m sitting in my chair, staring off at one of the curtains, and I hear her say, “No, don’t do this to me now.” I glance back at the laptop, and Windows is giving her the dreaded message about an error having occurred and asking her if she would like to send an error report.

I see her frantically telling each pop up message box that she does not want to send an error report, but more just keep coming. She tries control-alt-delete, but the computer doesn’t respond. Defeated, she holds down the power button on the laptop until the computer shuts off, waits five to ten seconds, pushes the power button again until the laptop powers on, and leaves, telling me she’ll be back in a few minutes.

As the laptop was booting up, I saw it was Windows 2000. And I thought, you know, I’ve stopped using Windows entirely because of my own personal frustrations with it. I have a new iBook for home use, and I run Linux at work. But getting personally frustrated with Microsoft Windows is one thing. This poor nurse wasn’t able to do her job for a short while because of Microsoft Windows.

This isn’t a life and death situation. It’s not like we were in the emergency room and vital diagnostic tools were down because Windows was spazzing out. But registered nurses at the Red Cross are hindered at work because Windows sucks. I don’t know how else to put it. What a shame.