Is Wireless ready for the desktop?

Is wireless ready for the desktop? I don't know. I remember a couple of years ago, lecturers at ECU always had to plug in their Ethernet cables in the main lecture hall despite the university having wireless APs all over the place.

I occasionally lose my connection, and I don't know what ends off bringing it back. It's the most frustrating thing. I don't know if it's Network Manager, but trying to use the ordinary Networking control panel to connect in these circumstances doesn't work either.

I got my connection back after putting the router upright on its little stand, turning on b+g mode, and changing the channel from 11 to 3. I also noticed while my father used his computer (he's finally using his new computer! Whoo hoo!) that his internet was like lightning compared to mine, despite us using the same router.

Maybe channel 11 is already in use in the local area, and packets are colliding? In any case, my internet seems a bit snappier right now, and it has finally connected and is staying connected.

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While my father readied his new computer, I noticed that I kept getting logged off MSN - it was reporting that I had logged in from another location. "That's strange", I thought. My father wouldn't have logged into Messenger.

I found out what it was. A bit later he was showing me what he'd done. He opened Outlook Express and it started loading in a list of my MSN contacts.

I wanted to take my MSN details off that computer so he wouldn't accidentally log me out again, but MSN Messenger (sorry, Windows Live Messenger) didn't seem to have anywhere I could see and edit the details! This is crazy! After about 10 minutes, I looked in the help file, and found the article "How to delete your Passport account details from the computer".

I ended off having to go into Control Panels, then User Account, then click my own account, then click a link in the sidebar for "Manage stored accounts" or something. This just goes to show you - familiarity is where you find it, and the reason why Windows seems so "easy to use" is because you know where all these things are. When someone from the Linux world tries to use Windows, it seems difficult to use because you don't know where anything is or how to do things in it.

I would delete Windows Live Messenger from the computer, but it's NOT INSTALLED according to the Add/Remove Applications control panel. Yes, I'm aware that you can delete it if you put a command into the MS-DOS prompt and add several keys to the registry, but this is 2008! I shouldn't have to use the command-line for anything! That's why Windows will never get more than 2% of the... oh hang on, it *does*. It's the dominant platform, but to remove software you have to type a very long command into the command-line. It looks like you're directly invoking a function in a core system library... ouch!