Techie Stuff: September 2008 Archives

Going back to IE7 right now.  GODDAMMIT STOP THINKING YOU KNOW HOW I USE FAVORITES.  I don't NEED a button to add things to my 'Favorites Bar,' it's ALREADY FUCKING FULL.  I NEED my 'Add to Favorites' button because THAT'S HOW I USE FAVORITES.  I bookmark stuff.  A LOT.  I don't want to use my keyboard, my hand is already on the mouse.  So why should I have to use three clicks just to get to the dialog box when your old version did it in one?  HOW IS THAT NOT FUCKING RETARDED???

Why is the world so stupid this week?  First Google Chrome (wouldn't import my bookmarks in any usable fashion) and now this.  Seriously, what the fuck?

If you work in tech support, you may sometimes have to deal with idiots.  The worst are the nitpicky jackasses that want to know exactly what an error message really means, and don't believe you when you say it doesn't matter, because after the problem isn't the error MESSAGE it's the fact that you're getting an error at all.  We have a big honking database full of ways to fix the error, but WHO CARES what the message means?  Not the developers - if they cared, they would have written a decent error message.

Well, for those calls there is a solution.  Now, the next time you get "Error Code 643" and they demand to know what it is and why it's happening you can tell those dweebs it's because "ERROR_DS_VERSION_CHECK_FAILURE."  Yes, yes, you could tell them what it really means (version incompatibility) but what fun is that? Why should you admit your lazy developer used a non-standard build to develop the application and released it to the company not realizing that the old drivers wouldn't work?  Fix the problem, not the blame.  Besides, it's equally likely that your dumb user decided to install some new software without approval from the IT department and it wrote over a critical DLL, and that's what's causing the error.  They're not going to admit to that.  You know how to fix it, and now they can bask in the knowledge of knowing what it means, and if they have half a brain, they can figure out why it happened for themselves.

Oh, by the way, it was because the dumb user had installed some software from the patent department without telling IT, and it updated a DLL which our mission-critical software, written in the dark ages, would not recognize.  The solution is of course to restore the old DLL (which the new software recognized with no problem).

The more things change, the stupider users get.  I found this in my diary.

So this user comes into the helpdesk (always a bad start) complaining that she can't log on to the network. I ask first if she's trying to use one of the networked computers in the building, or if she is using a laptop. She says it's her laptop, and swears that it used to work just fine. I ask her if she installed anything recently that might have altered the network settings - anti-virus software, Windows, whatever.... She says 'no.' So, I take her laptop and look it over. It boots up properly, the network settings are correct, so I ask for her network cable and adapter so that I can reboot and see for myself. She hands me the pieces - and I mean pieces. Why she didn't think to mention that her broken network adapter might have had something to do with it, I don't know. Then, when I say I can't fix that, she gets upset. As a consolation prize, I tell her that her computer works fine in all other respects. Right before I delete wsock32.dll. I'll blame it on a virus when she comes back.

But that doesn't stop me from admiring them.  Also, I like taking things apart and then putting them back together again.  So if you don't know how your car works, that's not terrible, but please don't pretend to me that you do.  Because I know that guys who really really know their car will happily dig around in the engine block to show you some new thing they added on that no one else has.  Some thing that turns their car's kitten-like purr into a tiger's growl.  Or some kinda turbocharger that kicks their car into hyperdrive in less than 60 seconds.

I mean, I only want to see Death Race for the parts where they show them building the ultimate weapon car.  Oh, and the explosions.  (I'm not a normal girl, I know.)  I saw the previews for Death Race, and was thinking, "I think I built that car when playing Car Wars."  Don't worry if that sentence meant nothing to you.  If it did, I just want to remind you that I'm single.

If I had a car in the real world, I would definitely want to muck around with it.  I'm not sure if I would need a turbocharger for living in the city, but a weapon rack would be nice nobody saw that.  I'd try to see if I could improve the gas mileage, of course.  And anything that makes a car easier to handle for superior idiot-dodging while driving.  I'd have to do some real research, and good thing I have the web to guide me around!

WHY do people call Technical Support and ask for THEIR password?  Do you call your cable company and ask for your keys?  In what world does it make sense that SOMEONE ELSE would have complete and total control to YOUR property?  WHY WOULD YOU WANT THEM TO??

I still haven't purchased a Kindle OR a Reader.  I'm leaning towards the Sony Reader, but I'm paralyzed by the promise of the new version.  Now there are rumors that there is a new Sony Reader coming out in November.  Should I wait?  Should I just buy one?

Auuuuuuuuuuuuuuugggggggggggggh!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The answer of course is, I should buy neither of them, and I should save my pennies.  I probably shouldn't have had that fourth can of soda either.

And I definitely shouldn't stay up all night watching Conan movies.

Well, you know what they say: two out of three ain't bad.

A Shepard tone, devised by Roger N. Shepard in the 1950s, is a sonic paradox that has been described as "a sonic barber pole," or as a sonic equivalent of Escher's endless staircase.  Basically, it is a series of notes that is perceived by the listener to continually either rise or fall in pitch.

James Tenney's For 12 Strings (Rising) produces the effect of a rising Shepard tone by beginning with a low note on one of the contrabasses, then having it glissando up an octave.  When it completes the first octave, it begins again; another bass enters on the same note and does the same thing while at the same time, a violoncello enters on a lower note and glissando up an octave.  It repeats again, another cello enters, and the violas come in on a higher note.  Then the second violins enter the same way, and finally the first violins.  The entire sequence is repeated about 400 times, and the steady rising pattern produces a Shepard tone effect.

Kindle:

Has some kinda wireless thing.  Lets you buy more books faster.

Only, I have electronic books.  Thousands of them.  Most of them from Project Gutenberg.  The conversion process for the Kindle seems to be, well, goofy.  They don't provide enough information on it, and what they do have is conflicting.

Also, there are rumors of a Kindle 2.  I'd rather wait for that anyway.

Sony Reader:

Comes in red.

I could just stop there, as that's pretty much a winning reason.  But I'll go on.

Supports PDF and reflow with the new version.  Crappy library however.  But I can now convert all my .LIT to the sony .LRF format.  Compelling.

If it weren't for those Kindle 2 rumors....

But it's RED!

They are both hella expensive tho, considering how poor I am.  I should just ignore them both.

.....

So I'm probably going to buy a Reader.  Thanks for helping me out with that decision!  You guys are great!