Monday, November 01, 1999
Hello Paula,
Monday, Monday, November 01, 1999, you wrote:
Paula> On Sunday, October 31, 1999, Thomas Fernandez wrote:
MDP>>> Very true! Computers are not the source of frustration. It is an
MDP>>> individual's own ineptitude that provides it.
>> You are both right, but still I am human and I get frustrated when the
>> programme does something else than I want it to do. See my other mail.
Paula> A user upgrades to Windows 98, carefully following all the instructions.
I have installed windows thousands of times , probably about any
version there is or has been, but doing it ac to the instructions has
only given me a headache sofar..
MS may say you can upgrade, I have never seen a 98 run stable after
doing it.
The BEST way to install 98 is a clean install.
Or at least with a clean registry as its in many cases the correct but
unwanted confusion causing registry settings which produce an unstable
system. At present there are in some newsletters some other kind of
problems caused by the various kinds of ie5 people install.
It totally messes your system up even if things seem to run its just a
matter of time before you get odd crashes.
SAME with 98v2, update from normal 98 doesnt produce a real stable
system and if you tried an IE5, ofice 2000 or something else with
THEIR version of IE5, then you are really better of with a format.
I did...
Anyway, have a look
here..http://www.winmag.com/win98/newsletter/1999/1013.htm#possfixes
Paula> All seems to go well. But he finds later, when rushed to get a report
Paula> done that he brought home from the office, that his word processor keeps
Paula> crashing with a very helpful error message about modules and registers
Paula> and stack dumps that may or may not actually point to the source of the
Paula> problem.
doesnt matter if they do or not as it will not help him to get it
fixed.
In a case like that you remove the offending program, use an other wp or
do the work on another machine. Ie get the urgent job out of the way
first.
Paula> His report is late and he spends the next week trying to figure
Paula> out what the problem is. He checks the Web sites of the software
Paula> companies and finds nothing that specifically addresses his problem, but
Paula> tries a few things that don't help. He downloads 4000+ posts from a
Paula> users news group. After a couple of hours of sifting through the posts,
Paula> he finds other users with the same problem, who have discovered on their
Paula> own that the Windows 98 upgrade replaced some system dll with a version
Paula> dating from the early days of WIN95.
98 overwrites ANY files existing with its own later ones if they
exist. You donot get the question do you want to overwrite or not.
If program misbehaves after an upgrade, reinstall the program and
hope it helps.
VERY unlikely 98 sticks an old dll in the system from the beginning of
95.
Paula> A user installs a small software program to help keep track of things to
Paula> do that was recommended in a review she read, following all the
Paula> instructions carefully and even using an uninstaller program.
I read reviews but I never install something just because some
journalist thinks its any good. For me thats about the worst
recommendation I can get unless its a journalist I KNOW using the
stuff and knowing what he writes about... Dvorak is a good example..
Paula> Everything
Paula> seems fine and she likes the program, but then her e-mail program
Paula> suddenly develops problems. She e-mails support for the e-mail software
Paula> company, who can only suggest reinstalling it. She does, first
Paula> reinstalling over the existing installation, then uninstalling with her
Paula> uninstaller and trying to clean out every trace of the program. It
Paula> doesn't help. Then, being a bit more savvy than many users, she recalls
Paula> that the problem started after she installed the other program. She
Paula> e-mails support for that company. The developer replies, as it's a 2-man
Paula> shop, and is very nice, but says he hasn't had any problems like this
Paula> reported and he's not familiar with her e-mail program. She uninstalls
Paula> the program, but her e-mail program still has problems. She re-installs
Paula> the e-mail program to no avail. Finally, as a last resort, she spends a
Paula> weekend wiping her hard drive and reinstalling all her software. The
Paula> e-mail program works. Was it the little software program? Who knows?
probably windows...
Anyway, installing/uninstalling programs is about the best way to get
a corrupted system.
I have a similar problem on my own system, Very likely an interaction
between The BAT and AVP. I kicked AVP out, problem is still there.
when it irritates me enough, it will be a clean install...
Paula> An office spends over $4,000 for a new laser network printer, which is
Paula> installed by experienced systems staff. They run a couple test prints;
Paula> all seems well. But, the staff then discover all sorts of printing
Paula> anomalies when printing simple word processing documents. The printer
Paula> company and the software company point fingers at each other.
Normal, which is the reason you buy the stuff from ONE company.
We already knew that 30 years ago...
Anyway send me an email off the list with what printer/OS etc they
want or try to run.
Not NT5 by any chance??? oops, I mean windows 2000??
Paula> The only
Paula> solution found is to use old printer drivers, which make unavailable the
Paula> nice, new features that were among the reasons that the office bought
Paula> the expensive printer in the first place.
Ok, but who decided to BUY that system? A system manager who KNOWS
what he is buying or the guy owning / running the company and doesnt
know a thing about computers...
If the last, he got exactly what he deserved.
Like the company in the 80's in Singapore where the owner, a chinese
from Shanghai bought a Wang computer as Wang also was from Shanghai.
And he wanted to run HIS chinese accounting system on it the same way
he did it by hand or whatever before.
After loads of work/upgrades and irritation they gave up on it and I
think the company went bust. Reason very simple, the owner who didnt
know anything about computers wanted them to do it HIS way instead of
looking if with a minor change and a different system the WHOLE system
could be better.
Not the computers fault...
Paula> A user is installing some software upgrade from a major software company
Paula> that deals with DUN connections. She is confronted with an installation
Paula> screen that asks which chipset her modem uses. Chipset? She pulls out
Paula> the documentation that came with her computer. In this case, she
Paula> actually happens to have a 'manual' that indentifies the modem in the
Paula> computer. The 'manual' is a 4-page brochure. It includes a list of the
Paula> modem specifications, filled with esoteric data, but nowhere does it say
Paula> what chipset the modem uses. She visits the modem manufacturer's Web
Paula> site. Nada. Top secret information apparently.
Any local computer shop normally can tell you that if they know what
they do. AND if modems are locally bought you donot end up with long
distance phone charges: you go and ask them and anyway, you should
already know that when buying the modem as if you buy a win modem or
its 56k equivalent you probably end up buying a new modem anyway.
Most engineers tend to be friendly, especially if the customer is a
confused lady(g). Make use of that fact!! In the best case you get
free advice and in the worst you have to treat him to a few beers to
have the talk.. added its always handy to know those people.
You want to buy something, you ask the engineer how they behave, he
sees the crashes etc, sales people donot.
Paula> Finally, she has to call
Paula> the manufacturer at long-distance charges, wait on hold for 20 minutes
Paula> on her dime, then talk to a support person who says he'll have to check
Paula> and get back to her. He never calls back. She calls again a couple weeks
Paula> later, goes through the same routine, but this time happens to get
Paula> someone who knows. He tells her politely, but is probably rolling his
Paula> eyes and thinking "another idiot user".
Correct. This is the kind of thing caused by mail order/discount
shopping and unless you know what you do, you should NOT buy stuff
that way. I got caught a few times as well and I THOUGHT I knew what
I bought..
Paula> All these examples are from real life. Want more? I could fill a volume.
Paula> How are any of these problems the result of the ineptitude of the users?
almost all of them...
Ask GOOD advice before you fork out cash on things, and if you donot
know if you can handle the support, find a good local place, find out
if they know what they do and let them make their profit. Its worth it
if it saves a headache, long distance phone costs and other problems.
And you have ONE place to complain if it doesnt work.
Paula> When you have to spend nearly as much time understanding the obscure
Paula> elements of how a tool works, diddling with it, fixing unexpected
Paula> errors, etc., as you do trying to use it for what you want and need to
Paula> use it for, then in my book that tool is frustrating. And, when the
Paula> quality standard of an industry is 'well, it works OK for most people',
Paula> then in my book that industry is still in the primitive stages of
Paula> developing.
Blame IBM and MS, we are still stuck with essentially the old
structures of 15 years ago.
main reason is simply that if totally new hardware is produced, there
will be alternatives to windows, ie the MS milk cow.
And blame IBM for selecting a lousy processor as they wanted a quick,
cheap chip and a 'small' company to make them.
The Motorola 680xx chip as Apple and Amiga used was far superior.
Paula> As for RTFM - as someone who always RTFM, or more often the online help,
Paula> which is the only written help one gets with most software these days, I
Paula> can only say that if the people who wrote these things knew the first
Paula> thing about clear writing, or if software companies would invest in
Paula> hiring people whose business it is to write good manuals or help files,
Paula> then users might be more inclined to read them. Yes, there are the users
Paula> whose first response when they encounter anything they don't know how to
Paula> do or fix is to call support (or yell across the office), and obviously
Paula> when you are doing support, this is going to be your picture of users.
Not quite and if I had to choose I probably would prefer a call before
someone who doesnt know what he does makes it worse.
Easier and cheaper to fix with less frustration.
manuals tend to be rather bad in most cases but I prefer a manual
writen badly by a guy KNOWING the program/problems then a nice and
well written text by a persion who clearly never used it..
Paula> But, if this were most users, there wouldn't be enough phone lines in
Paula> the world to handle the flood of calls. And, I can match every story
Paula> that a support person can tell about the clueless user with one about
Paula> the clueless support person.
Possible as support doesnt make money acc to a lot of companies.
So if you cannot show billing it means they often put the cheapest
people there, trainees or so.. Not always, but I have seen it a few
times and the efect was clear.
Paula> But, users don't bother circulating these
Paula> stories around the internet to the condescending chuckles of those who
Paula> revel in their in-the-know status. Computing is not the center of their
Paula> lives. Should it be?
No idea but I have seen a guy using the mouse, upside down, front to
back using his fingers to move the ball. He said it was just like his
sailing boat so now he has a rollerball(g).
he had other problems like scanning 40 mb files etc so I visited him
one time for an evening, we had some beer/wine etc together and sorted
the lot out. No charge, just a hangover..
Paula> My apologies to those on the list who could care less for this long
Paula> message.
Your printer driver problem intrigues me, send me an email pls with
details.
AND PLEASE chop this message down to its minimum if anyone responds.
Best regards,
tracer
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