Author Topic: The computing stuff rant thread  (Read 396511 times)

ian

Re: The computing stuff rant thread
« Reply #1775 on: 13 February, 2019, 05:51:04 pm »
Hmm, Office 2016 doesn't bother with any of those fancy font metrics when creating a PDF. As a result, the text looks like it's been kerned by someone on drugs and I'm having to open every file and redo the bloody tracking manually. Why, I've no idea, the information is embedded in the font. Worse, the fix seems to be – impressively – use an earlier version (which I don't have on this computer) or don't use PDF, use a raster format.

Computers, the 21st century labour-saving invention, freeing us up to the do the more important things.

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: The computing stuff rant thread
« Reply #1776 on: 19 February, 2019, 05:08:55 pm »
I see the Met Office website has been redesigned to maximise the amount of scrolling (particularly horizontal scrolling) you have to do.  I bet they've had some polo-necked conslutant with an iPad tell them it's a good idea.

Re: The computing stuff rant thread
« Reply #1777 on: 19 February, 2019, 08:04:13 pm »
I see the Met Office website has been redesigned to maximise the amount of scrolling (particularly horizontal scrolling) you have to do.  I bet they've had some polo-necked conslutant with an iPad tell them it's a good idea.

Forget the scrolling - who writes this crap ?

Quote
Gusts will be strong enough to make small trees sway by the evening, but it shouldn't blow you over.

Quote
Noticeably gusty, umbrellas may become hard to use.

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
  • Custard Wallah
    • Mr Larrington's Automatic Diary
Re: The computing stuff rant thread
« Reply #1778 on: 20 February, 2019, 12:43:47 pm »
Admiral Carinsurance?
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

FifeingEejit

  • Not Small
Re: The computing stuff rant thread
« Reply #1779 on: 20 February, 2019, 01:19:22 pm »
I see the Met Office website has been redesigned to maximise the amount of scrolling (particularly horizontal scrolling) you have to do.  I bet they've had some polo-necked conslutant with an iPad tell them it's a good idea.

Forget the scrolling - who writes this crap ?

Quote
Gusts will be strong enough to make small trees sway by the evening, but it shouldn't blow you over.

Quote
Noticeably gusty, umbrellas may become hard to use.

That sounds like Geoff Monk of MWIS trying to convert his forecasting style for a more general audience.


TheLurker

  • Goes well with magnolia.
Re: The computing stuff rant thread
« Reply #1780 on: 08 March, 2019, 04:48:56 pm »
Less a rant more a grumble, but we haven't got a thread for unfocussed IT grumbling.

Colleagues.  The .Net framework has many ways of partitioning chunks of code by responsibility, classes and namespaces spring instantly to mind,  so why did you think it was such a brilliant idea to drop all of those methods, there were 15, I counted them, in a "general" area and name them using the (anti-)pattern {BusinessProcess}_{MethodName01}, {BusinessProcess}_{MethodName02}, ... {BusinessProcess}_{MethodName15}? 

Pitiful.

Τα πιο όμορφα ταξίδια γίνονται με τις δικές μας δυνάμεις - Φίλοι του Ποδήλατου

Genosse Brymbo

  • Ostalgist
Re: The computing stuff rant thread
« Reply #1781 on: 08 March, 2019, 07:31:07 pm »
... name them using the (anti-)pattern {BusinessProcess}_{MethodName01}, {BusinessProcess}_{MethodName02}, ... {BusinessProcess}_{MethodName15}? 
I do hope the naming convention placed appropriately small lengths on the BusinessProcess and MethodNameNN.  One wouldn't want to exceed the assembler's limits for identifiers.
The present is a foreign country: they do things differently here.

TheLurker

  • Goes well with magnolia.
Re: The computing stuff rant thread
« Reply #1782 on: 09 March, 2019, 08:30:03 pm »
I do hope the naming convention...
Don't get me started on that.

"Thou shalt use Hungarian warts on thy variables and the wart shall say unto the world the type and scope of the variable."

Thus it was brought to pass in the land of Bedlam in the valley of the shadow of despair that there did appear declarations that were like unto the ravings of an lunatic whereat a class scope boolean would be named unto the world a method scope string and the proliferation of inanities of that ilk was without number.  Truly was the sorrow and woe without measure or gauge.

I ask you.
Τα πιο όμορφα ταξίδια γίνονται με τις δικές μας δυνάμεις - Φίλοι του Ποδήλατου

Re: The computing stuff rant thread
« Reply #1783 on: 10 March, 2019, 08:59:29 am »
... name them using the (anti-)pattern {BusinessProcess}_{MethodName01}, {BusinessProcess}_{MethodName02}, ... {BusinessProcess}_{MethodName15}? 
I do hope the naming convention placed appropriately small lengths on the BusinessProcess and MethodNameNN.  One wouldn't want to exceed the assembler's limits for identifiers.
This is not possible. TheLurker's colleagues are working in .Net so identifiers will be changed to ensure they don't clash before they even reach the CLR. There is no limit on the length of an identifier in C# apart from available memory at compilation. There is a limit in VB.NET of 1023 characters, but it will fail at compilation. As dysfunctional as TheLurker's team appear to be, method, class and namespace names all of hundreds of characters would be hard to achieve, even for them.
Quote from: tiermat
that's not science, it's semantics.

Re: The computing stuff rant thread
« Reply #1784 on: 10 March, 2019, 09:11:21 am »
I do hope the naming convention...
Don't get me started on that.

"Thou shalt use Hungarian warts on thy variables and the wart shall say unto the world the type and scope of the variable."

Thus it was brought to pass in the land of Bedlam in the valley of the shadow of despair that there did appear declarations that were like unto the ravings of an lunatic whereat a class scope boolean would be named unto the world a method scope string and the proliferation of inanities of that ilk was without number.  Truly was the sorrow and woe without measure or gauge.

I ask you.

I can heartily recommend SonarQube as part of your build process. I was getting thoroughly bored of repeatedly telling team members that their code was non-compliant (or just a mess) on what they saw as minor things. Just because that was standard practice when you were at college learning language X, does not mean you have to keep doing it 10+ years later with modern languages and tooling. Now the PR can just be blocked until Sonar issues are resolved, and I don't get viewed as the team pedant.
Quote from: tiermat
that's not science, it's semantics.

Re: The computing stuff rant thread
« Reply #1785 on: 10 March, 2019, 08:55:25 pm »
And the website acquiring the custard cream award for today, is Viator.

I'm off to Mexico this week, and have booked a guide for Friday through Viator. Went through Paypal, got confirmation from the guide, all seems good.

Went to log back into Viator. Sorry, wrong password. Now I know it wasn't. Oh well, reset password and I'm in. No sign of a booking. OK, lets try the Chat helldesk. 30 minutes later chat droid gives up and tells me I have to contact the PCI compliance (!!1!) Helldesk in USA. OK, I was using skype, but really!

It turns out viator.com and tourguides.viator.com are completely separate. Account on one =/= account on other. Tourguide systems can't even be seen by Viator........

Genosse Brymbo

  • Ostalgist
Re: The computing stuff rant thread
« Reply #1786 on: 11 March, 2019, 01:42:52 pm »
... name them using the (anti-)pattern {BusinessProcess}_{MethodName01}, {BusinessProcess}_{MethodName02}, ... {BusinessProcess}_{MethodName15}? 
I do hope the naming convention placed appropriately small lengths on the BusinessProcess and MethodNameNN.  One wouldn't want to exceed the assembler's limits for identifiers.
This is not possible...
'twas a joke.  A suggestion that the Lurker's esteemed colleagues' naming convention might belong to the world of 1970's assembly languages.
The present is a foreign country: they do things differently here.

TheLurker

  • Goes well with magnolia.
Re: The computing stuff rant thread
« Reply #1787 on: 11 March, 2019, 09:15:34 pm »
'twas a joke.  A suggestion that the Lurker's esteemed colleagues' naming convention might belong to the world of 1970's assembly languages.
I got it.  It made me smile.  It wasn't just assembly languages.  Many happy years in DSM-11 (MUMPS) wrangling an 8 character variable name limit and given that there was only one data type (character) Hungarian warts could be helpful even if they did mean you lost one or 2 of your 8 characters.  However that was when dinosaurs roamed the pens world and we now have power tools rather than stone axes.
Τα πιο όμορφα ταξίδια γίνονται με τις δικές μας δυνάμεις - Φίλοι του Ποδήλατου

Gattopardo

  • Lord of the sith
  • Overseaing the building of the death star
Re: The computing stuff rant thread
« Reply #1788 on: 12 March, 2019, 06:17:59 pm »
Trying to make a Debian USB stick installer.  Unetbootin seems to not work, well it doesn't create the debian tittle.  Rufus doesn't want to install the iso or download the iso.


Gattopardo

  • Lord of the sith
  • Overseaing the building of the death star
Re: The computing stuff rant thread
« Reply #1789 on: 13 March, 2019, 03:33:57 pm »
Ah sorted, in the end created a dvd. Haven't done that in ages.

David Martin

  • Thats Dr Oi You thankyouverymuch
Re: The computing stuff rant thread
« Reply #1790 on: 21 March, 2019, 11:33:08 pm »
Discovered one of our ancient systems made it through the Cyber Essentials security audit by dint of having an OS so old that it wasn't recognised by the scanner.
Mandrake 7 I think it was. Last updated in the Pleistocene (or 2007, which ever is earlier).
"By creating we think. By living we learn" - Patrick Geddes

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
  • Custard Wallah
    • Mr Larrington's Automatic Diary
Re: The computing stuff rant thread
« Reply #1791 on: 23 March, 2019, 04:51:40 pm »
Yesterday: Big PC is behaving perfectly.  Switch it off using the Approved Method.

Today: Big PC will not so much as stir a little bit from its torpor.  Grovel under desk, poke this, prod that and unscrew the other.  Faint glimmer of blinkenlight from video card on power-up.  Sometimes.  Replace video card with old one I had lying around.  Now typing this this from Big PC.  Suspect this means someone is about to charge me a lot of money for a new turbo nutter bastard video card >:(
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
  • Custard Wallah
    • Mr Larrington's Automatic Diary
Re: The computing stuff rant thread
« Reply #1792 on: 31 March, 2019, 09:37:10 pm »
Why is it so damn' difficult to get dual monitors to behave how I want them to ???

Bah!
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: The computing stuff rant thread
« Reply #1793 on: 31 March, 2019, 11:55:59 pm »
Why is it so damn' difficult to get computers to behave how I want them to ???

ian

Re: The computing stuff rant thread
« Reply #1794 on: 01 April, 2019, 09:56:10 am »
I confess that mine works perfectly, moving between mothership and remote command centre, it even remembers where the windows are on each desktop and screen. It's some kind of magic.

Feanor

  • It's mostly downhill from here.
Re: The computing stuff rant thread
« Reply #1795 on: 01 April, 2019, 11:32:02 am »
My work laptop seems to work mostly ok.
It seems to remember different docking stations, and when I plug it in, it seems to remember the monitor configuration from last time I used that one.

My main grumble is that if I crank it up as a standalone laptop, all the desktop icons get jumbled around to fit on the little laptop screen.
That's fair enough, but it doesn't restore them to their proper place when I go back to a docked configuration with a pair of large monitors.
It remains just a jumble.

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: The computing stuff rant thread
« Reply #1796 on: 01 April, 2019, 01:47:00 pm »
Dual monitors is one of those things where the Linux world had an early lead and squandered it by arsing about in a dozen different directions.  The pain level seems to have dropped off considerably since we stopped having to use proprietary nvidia drivers, which is good as it means you don't have to google for things with a "-ubuntu" flag as much.  I think the last problem I encountered was trying to rotate one monitor 90 degrees turnwise, when the stupid GUI tool only wanted to do it widdershins, easily fixed with the correct command-line invocation.

As ever with *nix, it's a case of once you do finally persuade it to work, it tends to stay that way.

My early experiment with dual monitors on Windows 98 was a right laugh, though:  I had a spare old graphics card, and had borrowed a monitor for a weekend, and found that - while primitive - the extra space was a wonderful thing.  So wonderful, in fact, that after removing the second graphics card, many windows forever[1] insisted on opening in the non-existent space somewhere off to the right of the desktop.   :facepalm:

I think that got sorted in the Windows 2000 era.  These days it's just random icon-shuffling, and occasional weird hot-plugging glitches that get solved by a reboot.

Never seen dual monitors do anything other than Just Work on a OSX Mac, though I'm sure there are projectors that can manage to fuck it up.  Projectors are like printers from a higher, less important circle of hell, and connecting anything to an Apple laptop runs the risk of the electrons getting stuck in the compulsory adaptor dongle.


[1] Well, until the next fdisk and OS reinstall, which is the Windows version of forever.

ian

Re: The computing stuff rant thread
« Reply #1797 on: 01 April, 2019, 01:55:45 pm »
Well, the problem is the number of superannuated projectors that seem to operate at exciting resolutions such 800x600 and contrast ratios as high as 1:10. If it's straightforward HDMI, all is good (I've an older Macbook with an HDMI connector) – that said, at home I use a mini-displayport to DVI connector, and it works fine.

Windows and projectors always seem to involve some random poking around display settings in the hope of stumbling on something that makes the screen appear at the correct aspect ratio.

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: The computing stuff rant thread
« Reply #1798 on: 01 April, 2019, 02:12:30 pm »
Windows and projectors always seem to involve some random poking around display settings in the hope of stumbling on something that makes the screen appear at the correct aspect ratio.

IME it usually involves sitting there watching a distractingly squished, cropped or aliased presentation *wishing* that someone would randomly poke around in the display settings and stumble on the correct aspect ratio.

ian

Re: The computing stuff rant thread
« Reply #1799 on: 01 April, 2019, 02:21:09 pm »
Indeed, the number of presentations (and the obligatory fifteen-minute how-do-I-make-this-work intros) I've sat through where I've wanted to stomp to the front and just bloody sort it out properly.