I migrated to Microsoft’s software as a result of my experience. When the Hewlett Packard 9000 software I was developing on was discontinued. I was left with few options, it meant I either froze the system or ported it to another platform. I did port the system to a Macintosh ( C++ and class libraries) but by then my sponsor was off on his early retirement and I was on different project in derivatives.

I was concerned the Symantec Think C and its class libraries would one day become discontinued like the HP Basic. When I had a choice on what platform to develop on, I choose the most popular Microsoft Windows and ANSI C.—I was not going to have the same mistake happen twice.

All project I developed after that commitment to Window’s I can still can compile and run. But I do believe my days of developing on this proprietary platform are coming to an end. This web site was constructed with Visual Basic dot Net but I am thinking of converting to C# and investigating a port to Mono—an open source dot net framework. And most of my efforts lately have been working with style sheets and SQL.

Back to the light traffic issue, this somewhat informed computer user who was discussing the nets shortcoming had decided not to explore sites he was not familiar with for concern over the threat of a virus. There must be many like him—moving away from the internet because it is just too dysfunctional.

Every time I run software to check my computer, I encounter spam, mostly unwelcome cookies sending back my mouse clicks. Only twice have I encountered major problems. Once was when I was contracted by a dot com which became infected with a virus. The repair required complete rebuild and eight hours of work.

The other incident was precipitated by some unsafe computer action after a night out. That evening I heard a sexy song by Paula Cole and need to hear it at home. This was the days after Napstar and free music was not easy to find by searching. When I unwisely accepted an activeX I unleashed hell. It took about five hours to remove the last effects of the download. I ended up buying the album and swore to be good.

But all these problems are moving uses away from browsing. Most now are happy to program ring tones in their cell phone until the viruses take to the air