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From: Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action
Subject: Re: Well, that's unexpected (Speedball reboot)
Date: Tue, 5 Nov 2024 18:18:45 -0800
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On 11/5/2024 7:53 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
> On Tue, 5 Nov 2024 09:32:10 -0000 (UTC), vallor <vallor@cultnix.org>
> wrote:
> 
>> On Mon, 04 Nov 2024 10:34:44 -0500, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
>>
>>> On Sun, 3 Nov 2024 16:27:15 -0800, Dimensional Traveler
>>> <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:
>>>
>>>> On 11/3/2024 2:33 PM, Zaghadka wrote:
>>>>> On Sun, 03 Nov 2024 10:39:13 -0500, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
>>>>> Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> I never had such fun experiences. It was always the usual nonsense;
>>>>>> program crashes with error (but never bother to read what the error
>>>>>> message said), or problems caused by malware, or dead hardware.
>>>>>> Usually the worst was when the user fucked himself (who needs
>>>>>> c:\windows\system32 anyway?) but it was all pretty ordinary in its
>>>>>> stupidity.
>>>>>
>>>>> I think my most memorable support experience was a woman in accounting
>>>>> (or was it HR?) who was complaining that her column of numbers, from a
>>>>> database import, wasn't summing in Excel. I banged my head against the
>>>>> wall for 10-15 minutes trying the usual stuff until it occured to me
>>>>> to ask her to click the column header and check the "Format..."
>>>>> dialogue. Sure enough, the entire column was formatted as "text."
>>>>> (*facepalm*)
>>>>>
>>>>> YOU CAN'T SUM STRINGS.
>>>>>
>>>>> To this day, I don't know if it was the import software or PEBKAC.
>>>>>
>>>>> My boss said, "I never would have thought of that."
>>>>>
>>>> When in doubt its PEBKAC.  That said Excel can be very difficult to use
>>>> sometimes.  It simply has too _much_ functionality, it can do so many
>>>> things that 99.9% of users would never even think of using let alone
>>>> actually try.  So sometimes it makes it difficult to use the simple
>>>> everyday functions.
>>>
>>> It's not just that it has so much functionality, it's that Microsoft
>>> made it so easy (comparatively) to use that even a high-school intern
>>> can create a script that (mostly) does what it needs to. And then those
>>> hacked-together scripts -after years of use- suddenly become essential
>>> business logic.
>>>
>>>      [It's sort of the business equivalent of XKCD's dependency
>>>       meme (https://xkcd.com/2347/) except nobody actually maintains the
>>>       project or even has any idea its there. And there are a lot more of
>>>       them than the one]
>>>
>>> Eventually, one of these scripts breaks and nobody has any idea how the
>>> data it output was created (because nobody remembers the script, or
>>> whose Excel spreadsheet runs it) and when you do find it, nobody knows
>>> exactly what it's doing or why.
>>>
>>> And that's even before you get into the fact that waaaaay too many
>>> business "databases" are just oversized lists in Excel...
>>>
>>> But if you really want to bitch about tech support, I just got one word
>>> for you. But be prepared: it's a very, very scary word.
>>>
>>>
>>> PRINTERS.
>>
>> Aaaah!  Halloween is over! ;)
>>
>> Seriously, though -- that's mainly a Windows problem.  Printing
>> is fairly pain-free on Linux and Apple, thanks to CUPS.  Just check
>> the compatibility matrix, and make sure you have a printer that announces
>> itself with Bonjour/Avahi/Zeroconf/Aloha/whatever it's called now.
> 
> It's not just Windows. Modern printer hardware is absolute shit.
> They're cheaply made and all those thin-plastic bits can break just
> looking at it.
> 
> But I think even blaming Windows isn't entirely fair. The default
> drivers that come with Windows are usually fine. It's when you install
> the bullshit OEM drivers (you know, the ones that now weigh in at
> gigabytes) that you really start seeing problems. Of course, these
> drivers are almost always Windows-only, so Windows gets the blame.
> 
> And all that before you get into the OEM shenanigins, like DRM on ink
> cartridges, or forcing you to buy a whole new tray of cartridges if
> you're just out of black, or nonsense like HP's attempt at ink
> subscription plans.
> 
> 
>> Scanners, now.  That can be challenging.  I bought a wifi scanner
>> without first checking for SANE support, and discovered I can only
>> scan from it with USB.  (Not _that_ big a deal because it replaces
>> another USB scanner, but I was hoping for the wifi.)
> 
> Too many printers these days -especially to SOHO customers- are
> multi-function scanner/printer/fax machines, so often you'll have the
> fun of printers and scanner problems all in one machine!
> 
Oh, you do NOT want me to get into all the functions our office 
"copiers" have.  Scanner/printer/fax is just the _start_.

-- 
I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky 
dirty old man.