Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server Essentials: Day One. Fairly interesting class so far. I can’t say I learned anything new that really rocked my socks today. But, in all fairness, the instructor did say that today would be the most boring day. Today’s topics included: Installation (I’ve already done this more times than I care to remember), Network Configuration (ditto), User and Permissions (actually interesting; I may have learned a really slick trick for migrating users between boxes), File Systems (not at all what I expected), Application Environments (I may have to start respecting Java at some point; not yet, but maybe soon), and Service Discovery (the most interesting by far – now show my how to tie into Active Directory and I can retire).
I came to a decision on Friday. I simply cannot teach Microsoft Word. I just can’t. I’ve tried several times now. But whenever I go to show the class how to do hanging indents, or decimal tabs, Word decides it’s time to take over the formatting for me. I wouldn’t mind so much if it were consistent, but it’s so hopelessly inconsistent and illogical. I’ve tried so hard to like Word over the years. I was an avid user of Word 5.1 in college, until I switched to WordPerfect 3. Those two were the nirvana of word processing for me. These days, it’s AppleWorks all the way. It’s quite a capable word processor, despite its reputation, and it stays out my way. Word is just too tiring anymore; I feel like I’m fighting it the whole time, wrestling for control of my content. I don’t have time for that. It was refreshing to hear other people say that they feel the same way, though.