Date: Mon, 20 Jun 2005 22:40:25 -0400
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
From: "Mike B." <omni at omniphile.com>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Computer problems at work

At 10:13 PM 6/20/05 -0400, Keith F. Lynch wrote:
>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!)

Blame that stuff on Unix, not Windows.  The Control-right-bracket thing is
a fairly typical telnet "enter command mode" sequence.  What commands you
can type to the telnet client after that vary a lot though.  Telnet
originated on Unix a long time ago...well before anything resembling
"windows" on a computer screen.

>As I mentioned here a couple weeks ago, the program that plays audio
>was filling a hidden directly on the disk with enormous "temporary"

"directly" should be "directory" I think... ;-)

>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.

It would have been even nicer if the program had just done the more usual
"your license has expired" message, with info on how to renew it if you
wanted to use the program some more.  Of course, if that's the main program
you are using at work, running on a 30 day trial license seems...odd.  I'd
have expected them to just buy a network license and install it as needed,
or at least buy a copy for each employee.  Or is this just due to your
being new?

>The program that plays audio has a very low maximum volume setting.

It may be setting volume as a percentage of the current system setting,
rather than an absolute system value.  What's the Windows volume control
set to?  It could also be a hardware problem (like a mismatch between the
sound card and whatever output device (speakers or headset) you are
using...or a defect in one of them).

>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.

Sounds like a memory limit issue...or a poor design in the playback
program...or both.

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

Sounds typical.  It will stay typical as long as people keep buying it that
way too.

-- Mike B.
--
Any Sufficiently advanced cluelessness is indistinguishable from malice.