Date: Mon, 20 Jun 2005 22:13:53 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Keith F. Lynch" <kfl at KeithLynch.net>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
Subject: [WSFA] Computer problems at work

As promised, here are some of the computer problems I have had at work.

First, the one that isn't really work-related:  I asked on this list a
few weeks ago how, when I telnet to Panix, each return I type acts like
return followed by linefeed.  I eventually learned that there was
a simply solution:  Type control-right-square bracket, followed by
"unset crlf" then two returns.  (And people still claim Windows isn't
intuitive!)  (I use this mostly to read email and newsgroup postings
during lunch, and to check my email just before I leave each evening.
I did use it for work today, since I knew on my Panix account I had a
bookmarked site that does "soundex" lookup by name of any American who
has died in the past half century or so.  I successfully used it to
look up the correct spelling of an unusual name of a lawyer who had
been practicing in a particular city forty years ago.)

As I mentioned here a couple weeks ago, the program that plays audio
was filling a hidden directly on the disk with enormous "temporary"
files.  The solution is, when you're done listening to a file, don't
select "done," but "delete".  It will warn you that if you go ahead
and delete, you'll never be able to listen to the file again.  It
lies.  It doesn't delete the file you're aware of, but only the hidden
file that you don't want.

One morning the Total Eclipse program that I do most of the editing
and proofreading in, said it couldn't find its "network key".  After
rebooting and re-seating everything attached to the computer didn't
fix the problem, the outside consultant had to be called in once
again.  After several *hours* she figured out that the program had
*expired* -- it was a 30-day license.  It would probably have been
faster to break security than to jump through all the hoops the
program's owners had her jump through.

On Friday, one important file in Total Eclipse, a lengthy transcript
of a hearing, lost its colors.  It's supposed to be various colors on
the screen, not just black and white.  What's worse, any attempt to
print the file resulted in blank pages, except for text in italics,
which printed normally.  All other files were fine.  Changing various
settings didn't help.  Reading manuals didn't help.  Copying the file
to a different PC didn't help.  The consultant wasn't available.
Finally, I had it export to a plain-text file, then used Emacs to turn
that file from output plain-text format back into input plain-text
format, and had Total Eclipse import it into a completely new Total
Eclipse file.  Without Emacs, I don't know what I could have done,
as those formats are very different, but in a formulaic way.

The program that plays audio has a very low maximum volume setting.
Also, if you pause the playback beyond the three-hour mark of a file,
when you restart you'll be back at the very beginning.

I've also had to do proofreading in Microsoft Word.  Which often
crashes.

So those are a few of the computer problems I've had.