Had some frustrations lately with software. In general, computers and I get along smashingly, as our Brit friends might say. However, there are a few necessary evils that I have to deal with on a regular basis, and I wanna voice that here.

These are those that drive me nuts. I either use the program personally, or I support within our company. Only a list of 3. Perhaps a list of favorites will follow?!

  3.  Adobe Acrobat (not the reader) : First, on install, it winds its beady little fingers in your other programs–like Office. Second, it does so poorly–often resulting in an error each time you subsequently launch that app. Third, dog slow in response. Finally, often locks up entirely. Again, avoid.

  2.  Act! : huge huge memory hog (with leaks). Also a nightmare to update. Uses SQL Server 2000, which by itself is ok, but they completely shut out even administrators. Evil. Avoid.

  1.  Juno email client : My wife will attest to my perpetual complaints about this one. Really, the client itself is OK. Three strikes that should be fundamental: 1) No spam filtering other than explicit emails you put on the blacklist; 2) No vacation mode to alert those who email you while you’re gone; 3) While checking mail, a modal dialog appear 1/4 the size of your monitor. It cannot be closed or hidden offscreen until email upload/download is complete. Utter crap, that.

Honorary Mention: Internet Explorer. Particularly IE7. Tabs are a good thing, this is a half-ass implementation of it. The entire upper portion of the browser is a pile of wasted space–to make matters worse, the menu bars cannot be repositioned. My suggestion: use Firefox (get it! use it!).