Author Publisher Educator Master's Degree in Education English Russian Spanish Other Languages
Author: Zoia
Zoia Eliseyeva is a native Russian, born in Soviet Union. She got a Bachelor’s degree in English and Literature from Latvia State University in 1989, and a Master’s degree in Education from California State University in San Bernardino in 2002. Zoia is an author of an autobiographical-immigrant book “The Girl from California” (Burkhart and Sproesser are Zoia’s last names by USA marriages), that was published in Russia and in USA, and a few Dual-Language (English-Russian), Trilingual (Russian-English-Spanish), and Multilingual books (English-German-French-Spanish-Russian) - introduction of World Classics including Tolsoy, Dostoyevskiy, and Chekhov. Zoia has been published since 1996, and she provided professional language services in USA since 1997. Being an optimist who walks through life with a smile, through years Zoia has been appreciated by her students of Russian, English, and Spanish languages in Europe, USA, and Mexico.
The Unpleasant Surprise from Microsoft on January 4 2025 or Happy New Year to All Taxpayers from Microsoft
What happened? After my last update on January 4 2025 of my WIN 11 Asus laptop - Microsoft rudely removed the beloved WordPad, which was completely ever-free-of-charge, default in any PC or laptop, blessed (because, again, free of charge), beautiful (it had all colors and fonts and almost all Word features) - the writing program, which an average taxpayer, who needs to make the ends meet financially, has been always using for his or her document creation needs.
Wow!
Is it greediness of Microsoft? Hatred for fellow-human-beings who try so hard to survive in the all-around-rising-inflation world, where a simple person cannot afford 12 eggs anymore because they cost 10 dollars. Thanks god I almost do not eat them, but there are millions of people who, normally, like to have a classic egg-and-bacon breakfast.
Have you seen chat on Neighbor-platform? Americans are freezing in their houses, or apartments - not turning on heat because it is painful or hardly possible to pay the high bills of Edison or SWGas (notorious SouthWest Gas company) in Southern California now, in wintertime, when the night temperatures may fall to 33 degrees Fahrenheit (right now, at the moment. when I am writing this). Let's remember that the freezing temperature is 32 in Fahrenheit and 0 in Celsius. So, we are not far from actually freezing here in the coldest part of 24-hour day.
Homo sapiens, a human being, wants to use a heater, but the bill will be so high, that a homo sapiens better would turn off that heater and put on some woolen socks and cover himself or herself with three quilts to sleep through the cold night.
After my step aside, and mentally, stepping outside to see the temperature now in the high desert of California, let's come back to my topic of the bad removal by Microsoft of the free writing default WordPad.
Let's brainstorm, using our wonderful, human-being's brain and see what we can use now in order to create a free of charge document on our home computers or laptops.
And the second question of mine here, as of an educator, or any writing person, a student, is - How do I save all my work created in rtf (WordPad)? How do I open those documents and how do I save them?
I will share with you what I did - trying to answer these questions with a firm solution. Maybe somebody wants to do the same - unless they have better ways which I do not know. Let's remember that there are usually a few alternatives to the possible solutions of any problems.
Usually, I never said "always".
I am an optimist though, and we live in the AI time which supposedly should help a human being. And the biggest and fastest help is exactly in the search of solutions for different computer tasks.
So, what have I tried to replace my ever-beloved, extinct by Microsoft now, WordPad?
I opened ever-reachable but never-used-by-me, poor-to-my-perspective, default NotePad.
I have seen before that a friend, a computer engineer of the first generations of people of this major in science, had always been using this NotePad. I was involuntarily, occasionally, randomly watching that, and I was always wondering - how could he be using so limited in possibilities (for me, a simple educator, not a computer major) writing NotePad?
Well, now I know that those past observations have served me somewhat at the moment because I am familiar to some extent with this poor, limited performance (for a writing person), NotePad.
I am not going to discuss here the poor features of Note Pad: AI will do the job much faster.
I am not going to name the features of WordPad which are lost now. I already mentioned a little bit above here - colors, and also highlighting, easy font change for any selected paragraph, etc.
There's no point of crying over spilt milk.
A normal human being has to quickly adapt to the new environment (yes, it is a bit hostile for me here now, and it has been just delivered as such to me by the last update of my Win 11 laptop by Microsoft). To adapt - means - to find other tolerable, functional solutions.
So, for the time being, I just started using this NotePad. Yes, uncomfortable, yes, limited, but somehow, to some extent workable, In the worst-case scenario, when I need a normal document, or a book to compile - I will go ahead and download some free OpenOffice, or whatever is available on Microsoft or Google apps, and I will be working that.
Thank you for reading me so far - those who have.
Disclaimer:
I know that there are people with Apple devices Win 11, etc, etc, and there are people who keep computer engineers on a retainer for regular help. However, I am a regular educator who works within free programs for adult student population. While trying to help myself when difficulties appear - like this one when an innocent free document writing program just have been drastically taken away by kind uncle Microsoft - I also try to help people around me who are not educators and may be slower in adapting to new conditions.
Steps You Can Take to save your WordPad documents:1
Search online for a free WordPad download. If you see many flashing adds on some page you open in your search - close it immediately. You do not want to be caught in some kind of false downloads for new fat-losing diets or newly created domestic novelties or clothes-purchasing. Just find the bearable looking page which offers a free download of WordPad.
2
Bear in mind, that this WordPad which you may download now, after January 4, 2025, will not be inside your Win 11 anymore because it has been officially removed. However, it will be in a shape of a so-to-say some kind of surface, light application in your computer.
3
For example, if you want just to copy your old WordPad document into your new "Light version of WordPad" - it will paste it there as a picture, and it will not be editable.
Nevertheless, you will see all the info. Be OK that you will not edit it anymore. Just leave it alone as a picture there, for your references, and then just start writing your new impressions on the top of it. So, this new writing will be editable.
4
Name your document in a way that will be slightly different from your old document's name. This way you just have created a new version of this light WordPad for yourself in your computer - a rtf-extension (Rich Text Format) document.
However, let's keep in mind, that since Microsoft eliminated forever WordPad, let's not indulge on it anymore, but instead, let's find new free writing programs. As I mentioned, OpenOffice is one of them.
Yes, I am aware that they say that there are free versions of Word out there.
I do not spend my time on that search: been there, done that. I am doing what I am doing, and I just have shared it with all who get to read me.
There are many ways, and this is one of many. I hope it will be helpful to somebody, as it was helpful to me yesterday when I was hit by a shock of losing access to all my WordPad documents. And, as a matter of fact, I do have many files in each computer I use. Many of them do not repeat each other.
Thank you for reading me!
Zoia Eliseyeva on January 5 2025 from California, USA
Happy New Year (of Wise Snake - by Chinese calendar) !!!
Good luck to all !!!
:D
+++++ END of POST January 5 2025 +++++
I had a repeated message yesterday from the bank about the suspicious activity around my accounts and that they are blocking my access until clarification. I did not use the 800-telephone number they recommended. Instead, I went to my local bank in person. When in the bank I waited for a bank employee (not a teller at the window) to finish his conversation with a customer and shared my story with him. He was a young, bilingual (English-Spanish) man. He called their security department and he said to me that there was an attempt from Los Angeles to access my account. Then he showed me one of my personal phrases that dated to 18 years ago and said that it was my ID. I replied, “No, it isn’t. That ID I used many years ago.” And I showed him my current ID. After about 20-25 minutes of him speaking to their department, we created new phrases, IDs and passwords. Of course, today we have a wonderful tool, a personal cell, through which an instantaneous digital code is sent to the owner of the phone. Unless the owner is kept hostage, the code remains the last unbreakable barrier which is very smart because of its short life. However, for the hostage situation, let your friends know about your whereabouts frequently, or leave a comment on a public profile that people around know about your latest activities or shared thoughts.
Dear friends, as a matter of fact, my password for the bank was the same for 16 years. And it was a very short phrase without any capital letters or special signs. After 16 years a hacker got to my ID and password and tried to access my banking. And, by the way, banking of a part-time educator is not a big catch so why they bothered - who knows.
I wish everybody stayed secure, and could clear out, desirably in person, all obscurities that come your way today. With AI developing fast there will be more and more fakeness for real human beings to figure out in all possible shapes - pictures, texts, videos, people.
I yesterday saw a short (video) where they showed an Asian country and a robot - a young girl with eastern face features and white complexion, dressed in 2024 fashion, - so the robot was walking out of the grocery store and big crowds of people were watching. The robot had a very unnatural appearance - the features were the fantasy of its creator - eastern features with not matching complexion. The movements were regular robot's movements. She was cautiously stepping out of the market and down from the curb to the road while surrounded by a lively crowd of people, who observed her.
I believe we will have more and more of all of these kinds of creations almost every new day.
And fraud is never asleep. Who brought up those people? Why they have this ugly occupation of stealing from others? Who taught them? What culture made them crooked? How they skipped all good and valuable what each culture has? Why they are not ashamed of themselves and continue engaging themselves in pathetic criminal wrongdoings?
Let's fight fraud by exposing hackers' ways and sharing stories of fakeness and fraudulent activities, and how to stand against them - so our friend, relative, or neighbor is always on alert what can happen.
There was an evaluation of me, an instructor at a community college. One of 17 students anonymously wrote that I spoke with accent, and I guess, based on that, my total grade was “satisfactory”. Well, the choice of grades is very poor. One has to choose Excellent, or Satisfactory, or Unsatisfactory. How about if an instructor performs very well? It is wrong to call a good performance just “satisfactory”. “Satisfactory” is also the grade that just slipped by one point, or a fracture of the point up from “Unsatisfactory”. Should I be angry? Should I complain? Should I keep silent? I have to admit that the class I teach now consists of people who are very fresh newcomers to the USA. When you ask them how long they have been in the country, you may hear “2 months” and “4 months”. I would say if they do not like my accent, they 1) have a wide choice of other classes 2) can ask me to repeat the explanation – the suggestion I make quite a few times during any given class. Specifically from this class I have heard not very many questions. So, I guess, they are shy to ask a question, but they (just one particular person) was not shy to complain on an official paper. People, people! Who brought you up? Did not they teach you ask for help before complaining? And this is what I do all my life – I help people. This is what my profession is about. Of course, there were other students’ remarks, one of which said that I was the best teacher he (or she) had ever had, and that they liked my website very much. The college processing chose 2 positive answers and one negative – out of 17. The Peer Observation Review was almost 100 percent for 5.0 grade. All other points were also higher than 4.0, many of them – quite higher. And yet, the total grade is “Satisfactory”. 27 years of experience in USA and 5 years before USA. “Satisfactory” because I speak another language, and of course I speak with accent. As a matter of fact, the class is 99 percent Spanish-speaking, and I know Spanish grammar and I can explain and compare English with Spanish grammar. And the point of my article? 2 wishes that will remain just wishes, and that is OK, because we “cannot jump higher than our own heads” (with the analogues for this saying in other languages). My 2 wishes: I wish the student who became a reason for my low grade asked me questions first. I wish the final grades were more developed than just PLUS, MINUS and one poor “Satisfactory” grade. An experienced instructor who loves her job deserves better than “Satisfactory”. It makes me feel like that: “Ok, so I have worked all my life devoting myself to my teaching profession, and I am performing just “satisfactorily”. That much for self-evaluation, self-identity, and self-satisfaction. However, of course, there is just simple general truth about working with people: “One cannot ever be good to everybody”. There will be someone who will not like you. In Russian culture we also have a proverb “A tiny spoon of machine oil will spoil a barrel of honey”. My translation of the proverb is not perfect but readers will understand the sense of that perfectly. Thank you, everybody, for reading me! Zoia Eliseyeva April 25 2024 California PS Maybe I should have mentioned that from my childhood I was schooled with the grades “5” for “excellent”, “4” for “good”, and “3” for “satisfactory” with the latter hardly keeping on the surface of the performance. And my regular grade was mostly 4, “good”: I had almost never reached for “excellent”, nor I had such aspirations. I do not think it is good or bad: it is just about how high aspirations each person has for achievements. I have the other story to share just to the point, however I will tell it some other time, just to keep myself strictly to the topic of this particular standard college incident. 😀
I wanted to say a joke, but came up with a little story.
Here it is. I wonder, how long a modern “mammoth”, who resists using downloadable aps through codes, can survive? They (codes, offers, ads) are coming from all directions, I’d say in a more aggressive way, almost every day. The mammoth may just not be able, for example, to see that button F11 to exit the Full screen feature – because s/he is 1) of a mammoth’s age and because 2) s/he is writing in the darkness of the night. All today’s youngsters will be that age one day, even if they do not realize it now. Time is non-turnable. It only moves in one direction: to future. I was in a European big city airport in 2021 and at the check-up counter they made me download the code-reader app in order to read their app. When I flew to the next European capital city, a few hours later, the other fellow-traveler-mammoth, who spoke only one European language, asked me help her around the airport because she had heard me talking the language actively at the check-up counter of the previous city. Yes, that’s true, in a European capital city, in its big airport, for some reason, nobody was willing to understand the second of the 6 languages of the world communication: the language spoken in Europe and widely in South America. I helped her all the way because I am always happy to help other human beings with what I can. This is how we were brought up back in my native culture, and this is what today, I think, is more important than ever. It seems that not knowing a popular foreign language will be the smallest challenge for a human being in the near future. Well, a mammoth with the knowledge of a few popular modern languages may choose to resist the pressure of imposed codes, apps, and other downloads. However, if it becomes as necessary as it was the transfer to a cell service a few years ago, then, I guess, the mammoth will adjust and survive during its remaining life.
