Too good to be true

This cannot be true. But it is. Work is pleased to put the full might of Microsoft’s world-beating Microsoft Team Services at our disposal, to facilitate the rat-a-tat back and forth of a good conversation, enable file sharing easier than 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 etc. and generally build an online community that rocks (and hums tunelessly in a corner). So I, a mere novice, with a heartfelt desire to please, contribute a little something. And to make it easier for my fellow users, I put a link right there in my discussion!

How did you do that? asks the person who maintains the site. I explain, with exaggerated patience, about <a= and href and stuff, which she actually knows all about. She goes to try.

No dice! Glorious Microsoft Team Services spits out her input as unreconstructed (though perfectly formed) HTML. I try inserting another link from my machine. It rocks. Eventually we notice that her version, in Explorer, has dinky little editing buttons while mine, in Firefox, does not. We decide that she should seek the wisdom of Work’s all-knowing Information Management Service.

Oh, you can’t put links in in Explorer, they confirm, thus providing yet another good reason not to use The Only Approved Browser. You have to use Firefox, thus providing yet another good reason to break the rule that says You May Not Install Software On Your Desktop.

God, but I love Microsoft. Their own browser, and their own thingummy, and they can’t even talk to one another. What hope is there for world peace and understanding?