Bug reports
It’s been a rough week or two in terms of hardware and software bugs.
I tried to upgrade an old installation of phpwebsite, and found that the developers left no documentation for upgrades, no upgrade path, and no explanation of an error message that, in the end, turned out to be from having php4. The developers have such contempt for people with “outdated” servers that they didn’t bother making an appropriate error message or even checking for the right php version when starting.
I used the latest versions of Microsoft Office. I don’t think I really need to say much more there.
I tried to make an animation on Photoshop. I gave up. The documentation is absurdly poor and the methods … strange. I had a great animations program a while back and I’ll have to run it on my kid’s computer (it’s old enough that it won’t run on my computer any more) if I want to make an animated GIF without going insane.
We finally got Verizon’s router working right - I think - though the tech could have mentioned along the way, “By the way, all your filters and settings will get wiped out by this.” I tried to switch from MSN to Yahoo with my Verizon account but the system doesn’t work quite right.
Sometimes, there was a way to register bugs. SPSS has an easy bug registry; so does OpenOffice though many bugs are dismissed with “What you want is wrong, anyway.” Good system, bad attitude (open source!!!) phpwebsite… is a mess in terms of any user relations. Lots of old, outdated documentation and nothing for the current versions. I think. They talked about release 10 and I was trying to install 1.52.
Meanwhile, every time my wife tries to use Allpar, she ends up frustrated with the navigation and orders me to change something.
So… I’m changing something.
You can now file bug reports at http://www.toolpack.com/allpar/bug-report.php — and if I get overwhelmed or overspammed, I’ll install a serious bug tracking system.
We’re here for you.
If you went to Carlisle Tires and actually BOUGHT bias-ply tires on purpose, you’d find that your new Prowler handles like crap! That does not mean that Chrysler, nor the tire maker, has “contempt for people with “outdated” tires”. Nor does the documentation for the Prowler say “By the way– don’t use outdated stuff!!” What IS true is that, in a technological world, ya’ gotta RTFM– Read The Friggin’ Manual! Don’t say that this is not the same thing– Chrysler–and all of the other makers, and all of the oil companies, NO LONGER SUPPORT THAT OUTDATED LEADED GAS. Not out of contempt, but, out of a sense of progress! It’s the same in the software world– software is just like beer– you never BUY it, you only RENT it! Want things to go well? BUY THE NEW STUFF– and read ALL of the doc that you can find. Things will go smoothly. AND– watch out for that funny word– If you catch someone– or yourself saying “But it SHOULD….” No, it shouldn’t. The days of “backward compatibility” are over. They ended sometime during the time that the number of PC software titles jumped from only 33,000 in the early 1990’s, to several hundred thousands today. BACKWARD COMPAT WOULD ALLOW YOU TO SAVE A LOT OF MONEY BY USING OLD SOFTWARE– BUT, TO HAVE THAT, NEW SOFTWARE WOULD COST MANY TIMES MORE– AND, IT WOULD BE HARDER (OR IMPOSSIBLE) TO DO SOME OF THE THINGS THAT SOFTWARE NOW DOES.
As for the animated GIF, they are simple to make– time consuming, but simple. Don’t blame Photoshop! THAT’S LIKE MICHAELANGELO BLAMING HIS HAMMER & CHISEL FOR NOT HAVING THE RIGHT DOCUMENTATION TO ENABLE HIM TO CARVE HIS “DAVID” MASTERPIECE! SAME WAY, A SCALPEL COMES IN A BOX WITH NO DOCUMENTATION— HOW THE HELL DOES ANYONE DO SURGERY??? OH, YEAH, SNAP-ON SELLS THOSE GREAT TOOLS– YET, THEY DON’T COME WITH DOC TO TELL ME HOW TO BUILD A WINNING SMALL-BLOCK CHEVY!
Actually, I’m shocked. Here you are– working on a site that EXISTS because the information we need about vehicles is so hard to find that we’ve gotta ask ANYONE WHO CAN TO HELP US! JEEZ! DON’T BE SO PROUD– FIND SOMEBODY WHO KNOWS WHAT THEY ARE DOING TO HELP YOU!
Maybe I’m not so shocked. Ya see– I’m in the computer business. I’m the guy with a small shop who has learned to find the answers (they’re ALL out there!) for folks who come in all in a huff because their computer did’nt turn them into an artist, or a writer, or a webmaster— or whatever. MAYBE THERE SHOULD (SORRY, THERE’S THE WORD) BE A SNAP-ON LOGO ON THE COMPUTER! THEN, NO ONE WOULD EXPECT DOCUMENTATION, AND THEY WOULD EXPECT TO FIND OUT THAT THEY NEED A NEW TOOL EVERY TIME THE TRUCK STOPS AT THEIR OFFICE!
Seriously–You have a great site! It has helped me many times! DO THE SAME FOR YOURSELF– GET GOOD HELP! Like the line from that old late-night infomercial— ‘IT’S EASY– when YOU know the secret!”
Software is not supposed to get in your way. I have every right to complain about a lousy user interface. I’ve been using computers since I was in high school and we had teletype terminals… (I barely missed punched cards). I know more word processors than probably exist today.
I’m not complaining that my Mac can’t run my old GIF animation program. In return I get a very powerful processor which will let me run Windows… in windows… without rebooting or dealing with it when I don’t want it. I just don’t understand why Photoshop comes without serious documentation of this feature, and why they make it so hard when clearly there have been easier interfaces. I can say the same about many programs - as time goes on and computers get more powerful, things should be easier, not harder.
Animated GIFs do not need to be time consuming to make. I used to be able to set them up in minutes on a computer than ran at a whopping 8 MHz.
You can be as angry at me as you want, but the fact is that a lousy interface is a lousy interface. We expect wrenches to have handles proportionate to the capacity of the end; screwdrivers have rubberized handles for a reason. I expect expensive tools like Photoshop to have rubberized handles, so to speak, rather than handles made of the most slippery substance they could find. (I’ve been using Photoshop since version 1 … I also used Aldus Pagemaker 1.0, Word 3, GEM Desktop, etc….)
I can blame the hammer if the hammer can’t push a nail in. I can blame the screwdriver if the top isn’t shaped right (you know many “Phillips” screwdriver aren’t!). I can blame the socket wrench if the handle is too long for the strength of the gears. I can blame the sockets themselves if they aren’t the size they’re marked. And though I use a “professional” computer, if it has design flaws that cause it to corrupt files, then yes, I can blame the tool. (This particular one doesn’t. I’ve had problems in the past with other computers… PCs and Macs alike.)
I don’t know anyone who does animated GIFs in Photoshop or I’d have asked for help, and Adobe’s web site is … slow. So slow one wonders why they don’t upgrade their servers, given their massive profits.
So in the end, I have to ask if it’s worth it, and the answer is - no, I’m just not going to do animated GIFs. The payoff isn’t there.
I will, though, continue to be impressed by the way Dreamweaver rarely makes me curse… unlike GoLive…
I “upgraded” to the new Office because I had to - my wife uses Quickbooks for her business (and our accoutant does as well) and after updating to a new version it required Office 2003 or newer. We were using 97. I tried to find Office 2003 (I use that at work and know it rather well) but I actually found the new one much cheaper, so went that route.
I hate it. They can take their ribbon and….never mind.
I tried openoffice - doesn’t work with Quickbooks.
I didn’t really NEED to upgrade to this new Microsoft Word Java Systems processors. However, it was offered for free, and I like new toys. So downloading I go. Sorry. Access is not that easy, especially for novices like myself. Need to be a computer programmer to make it all work. I am not, nor am I going to employ one in order to use this “ease of access version.” After an hour or so of fiddling with it, and getting absolutely NO satisfaction, I went to uninstall. Which was far easier than trying to figure it out, period. I would not recommend it, for anyone, including the outraged computer guy noted above, except it would insure his job security if enough people are deluded into this “easy” program!