<rant=reality>Followup to my remote observatory PC crash caused solely by Microsoft's blithering carelessness.

Because MS's neckbeards couldn't be bothered to put down their company-paid espressos long enough to actually glance at their work monitors even by accident, yesterday I: drove 100 miles in snowy weather, the last 3 miles of road requiring 30 minutes' inching along in a Subaru, then abandoning the car to hike with gear up the steep, high-altitude loma > 1/2 mile through calf-deep snow, taking an hour across open country, all to open the observatory to push one button to reboot Windows.

Yes, Windows Update had yet again frozen my laptop, blocking external boots because it decided first that I had a bad disk sector (on a SSD!) then hey just kidding the SSD was perfectly OK after all, but losing all record of any Updates ever having been done on this 4 year old Windows install. I went through 3 cycles of Update and boot, and it seemed to be itself again. Closed up the observatory and luggged stuff back down the loma through snow, 2 hours' driving back home.

The kids at Microsoft apparently don't get that their software-fail workflows have real-world consequences, that Snapchat and Fortnite aren't the whole real world.

Through the snow I stopped to check my pulse before continuing, every 16 counted steps, the whole distance, both ways. Somehow didn't fancy dropping of a heart attack as a final sacrifice due Microsoft. But then I realized: then at least I wouldn't have to boot up Windows ever again! That thought encouraged me to continue on. Enjoy your free espressos, kids!

Have halted my astro rig upgrades. Going back to music instead looking better and better, rarely requiring dragging gear up hills alone through snow. Best of all: they've standardized on Apple.