Author Topic: The computing stuff rant thread  (Read 396470 times)

Feanor

  • It's mostly downhill from here.
Re: The computing stuff rant thread
« Reply #1350 on: 26 February, 2017, 04:07:30 pm »
Dear Creative,

Thank you for updating the software that Does Things with my sound card.  However, I had the default sound device set to the optical output on said sound card for a reason, viz. that is the hole out of which the sound travels on its way to the amplifier.  So there's no need to change it to something which ISN't connected to anything other than thin air, is there?  Just stop it.

Hmph.
Every time I get a New! Shiny! video driver for my Pictures Card, it re-sets the sound to go out the HDMI pipe to the tinny little speakers on the monitor.
Update the driver if you like, but please to be Leaving The Fuck Alone my choice of sound output device!

barakta

  • Bastard lovechild of Yomiko Readman and Johnny 5
Re: The computing stuff rant thread
« Reply #1351 on: 26 February, 2017, 04:10:33 pm »
Now Pusnet are claiming they emailed 3 times and the 'archived' emails cannot be restored - I did not see these emails and nor did Mum so I don't think we received them (Others on webforum are complaining of similar no emails but still deletion). I am demanding to speak to a manager and am about to defenestrate them. Really unfucking happy.

I nearly copied the imap folders onto our server before I stopped co-reading her emails (at Mum's request cos family stuff) but decided not to bother. I might have some locally on my windows box, but I don't know if I can access them if Pusnet has buggered around.

We're paying for this shit service!

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 #1352 on: 26 February, 2017, 05:08:08 pm »
Nvidia at least seem to leave the sound on my boxes alone when they update the picture card driver.
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

StuAff

  • Folding not boring
Re: The computing stuff rant thread
« Reply #1353 on: 26 February, 2017, 08:51:44 pm »
A tale of updating two operating systems.

Saturday: update to existing OS. Dear me it was painful. Lengthy download, with no indication of progress (real or imagined). Eventually downloaded it, ran the updater...which then failed to work so I had to start from scratch. Second update did work, very, very, very slowly. OK, it was to an HD rather than SSD, but shouldn't be that slow. Multiple reboots, some of them hung which was very helpful, followed by more extraordinary slow 'progress'. Less than 1% per minute...on a 3.33 hex core Xeon! And then I was prompted for a password and it wouldn't accept it even though I knew it was right, eventually it took....this normally speedy machine remains doggedly slow on this OS, god knows how anyone stands using it all day. Admittedly the OS hadn't even been booted in months, so many updates needed, but......updating took all day and it wasn't a new OS let alone a clean install!!

Sunday: New version of OS. Already had installer (without updates) on USB stick. Install to SSD took about half an hour. One password needed, accepted without question, zero faffage. Machine rebooted perfectly first time. Ran update to latest version- 1.8 Gb download, then another half hour. Runs very nicely, no further software updates needed- Wi-fi connection not recognised (a known issue with this machine config & OS version, I'll need a new Wi-fi adaptor)…then seamlessly cloned the SSD's new OS install to the main HD.

Saturday was (you'll never guess…) the Windows 10 Anniversary update.
Sunday (you'll never guess…): MacOS Sierra 10.12 (and hence to 10.12.3) from El Capitan.

It's still better to think different......




Dibdib

  • Fat'n'slow
Re: The computing stuff rant thread
« Reply #1354 on: 27 February, 2017, 08:39:52 am »
Fucking Plusnet have deleted all the folders in my mum's email account. I'm stuck in a queue for their online support as there is no offline way I can deal with them. If they cannot/willnot restore data I will be calling the ICO on them. I searched online and found others had had similar and they weren't over the storage amount and did not receive warning. I have been waiting 7 mins and counting. I'm now 4th in the queue. The system doesn't really tell you what is going on for ages. User interface of fail. I'm hassling them on twitter in case that's faster...

Probably not useful for this, Barakta, but Plusnet support on their internal newsgroups is actually half-decent (at least when I used to read them). Obviously not real-time, but some of the old-timer PN staff with a more full allocation of Clue were active in there and willing to hassle the appropriate departments.

ian

Re: The computing stuff rant thread
« Reply #1355 on: 27 February, 2017, 09:51:19 am »
A tale of updating two operating systems.

Saturday: update to existing OS. Dear me it was painful. Lengthy download, with no indication of progress (real or imagined). Eventually downloaded it, ran the updater...which then failed to work so I had to start from scratch. Second update did work, very, very, very slowly. OK, it was to an HD rather than SSD, but shouldn't be that slow. Multiple reboots, some of them hung which was very helpful, followed by more extraordinary slow 'progress'. Less than 1% per minute...on a 3.33 hex core Xeon! And then I was prompted for a password and it wouldn't accept it even though I knew it was right, eventually it took....this normally speedy machine remains doggedly slow on this OS, god knows how anyone stands using it all day. Admittedly the OS hadn't even been booted in months, so many updates needed, but......updating took all day and it wasn't a new OS let alone a clean install!!

Sunday: New version of OS. Already had installer (without updates) on USB stick. Install to SSD took about half an hour. One password needed, accepted without question, zero faffage. Machine rebooted perfectly first time. Ran update to latest version- 1.8 Gb download, then another half hour. Runs very nicely, no further software updates needed- Wi-fi connection not recognised (a known issue with this machine config & OS version, I'll need a new Wi-fi adaptor)…then seamlessly cloned the SSD's new OS install to the main HD.

Saturday was (you'll never guess…) the Windows 10 Anniversary update.
Sunday (you'll never guess…): MacOS Sierra 10.12 (and hence to 10.12.3) from El Capitan.

It's still better to think different......

I think I mentioned the unbearable contortions of connecting Outlook 2011 (don't ask, it's what the mothership give us Mac users) to the Exchange server compared with providing email address and password to link Apple Mail and Calendar with Exchange. Three pages of instructions, endless settings, and it didn't work. That's linking two Microsoft products.

I've just spent 30 minutes of my day trying to put some title text in a box in Word (some old document that needs updated branding). I thought actually that I'd just draw a black box, remove any word wrap and put it behind the white title text which seemed an elementary 2 minute job.

Oh fuck.

And there's a logo graphic in the footer.

TimC

  • Old blerk sometimes onabike.
Re: The computing stuff rant thread
« Reply #1356 on: 27 February, 2017, 10:21:18 am »
BT. 'Nuff said? Well, maybe not - because I've had a bit of a result after grinking to Gav.

Moved into new gaff ni August. Prior to moving, talked to BT who said, "Lucky you - you can haz FTTP and mega BB speeds an all, innit" (because they talk like that at BT). "What's more, the work will be done before you move in", they lied, jauntily.

Of course, it wasn't. "No matter", quoth they," we'll put you on a promotional BB rate for copper BB in the interim. Won't be very quick, but it'll only be for a month or so". They lied again.

7 months later, I am finally enjoying FTTP and reasonable speeds. Not the 78mbs promised, but 50+ which is ok. Trouble is, BT carried on charging me both the normal rate AND the promotional rate, then charged me £31 for disconnecting the promotional rate PLUS £48.10 for 'prematurely ending the previous contract' and £50 for connecting the FTTP!

"Not on your nelly", said I, and promptly wrote to BT complaints, and copied the letter to Gav. This was Friday afternoon. Call from Gav's office this morning - have £240 back overcharged, plus £60 for your trouble, and your FTTP is now £12 a month instead of £20-something.

Result.

Phil W

Re: The computing stuff rant thread
« Reply #1357 on: 27 February, 2017, 11:26:16 am »
Website hosting company please don't implement such a shit protection against brute force attacks on login that means none of my mountaineering club can login.  You can do rate limiting and 503 status by IP address you know. You don't need to suspend login for everyone. Just saying.

Mutter mumble for a website that I generally only need to get involved in once a year when I ask the committee to refund me the hosting costs....

Re: The computing stuff rant thread
« Reply #1358 on: 27 February, 2017, 11:46:49 am »
Gav?
Get a bicycle. You will never regret it, if you live- Mark Twain

TimC

  • Old blerk sometimes onabike.
Re: The computing stuff rant thread
« Reply #1359 on: 27 February, 2017, 01:24:16 pm »

ian

Re: The computing stuff rant thread
« Reply #1360 on: 28 February, 2017, 10:17:34 am »
So, I have to dig out the mothership PC to submit my goals (or attempt to, there's so many rants stemming from the entire concept of goal setting – THEY DON'T FUCKING WORK, YOU DUMB HR FUCKERS – to Workday – a steaming low contrast pile of shit that looks like it's written in Flash) and I've tried three times on a Mac and there's only so many times. Yes, yes, helpdesk, I've cleared my cache, I've used a different browsers and pretty much done everything but call up Finestre, the Demon of Such Things. Because that's serious shit and you don't want to see her performance goals.

So I copy and paste my six tenets of corporate ennui into the boxes and think, you know, before I start to scream at the same cryptic error message (I'm going to hunt down the software developers who think it's 'this page can't be restored' is a useful error message and make trained weasels eat their eyeballs), I'll refresh my coffee and review (the art of performance management is wording your goals in such a way as they ask as little as possible, so exceeding is guaranteed by simply continuing to breathe). So I turn around for a second and...

WINDOWS IS RESTARTING YOUR COMPUTER.

Fucking update.

Then I input it all over and you guessed it. Someone tells me to clear my cache again and I'm going to clear theirs. Permanently.

TheLurker

  • Goes well with magnolia.
Re: The computing stuff rant thread
« Reply #1361 on: 28 February, 2017, 07:41:11 pm »
...I'm going to hunt down the software developers who think it's 'this page can't be restored' is a useful error message...

Y'see that's what comes of expecting software developers to understand and be articulate in two languages at the same time; whatever it is they're writing the code in, ohh I dunno Forthal MCMLXVII with the Pastran extensions and a natural language like English.  It just doesn't work. I see this all the time.  You get some bloke (statistically it's a bloke) who, when down the pub or in the cafe, has a vocabulary and way with language that would put Shakespeare to shame, but ask that same bloke to write coherent, understandable natural language error messages after a long day writing code in a language with very much less room for expression and you get statements and reports that are utterly correct but totally uninformative. 

Being slightly serious about it; it is _very_ difficult to find a short sentence that can convey enough information that will allow a user to correct the problem, if possible, or, if not, let him or her know that it's time to hand the problem on to someone else.  A large part of the problem is that you have no idea how well the user understands the language the error message is written in nor how well they understand the business model / process that the program is dealing with. 

The situation is then made worse because the developer is under the cosh to get the code out of the door some time last week and spending more than a few seconds working out an error message costs time that can't be spared. I have, and I jest not, seen me sit for 15 or 20 minutes trying to find a sensible and brief form of words for an error message in one or two complicated cases.  I think it's time well spent, if only because a decent message can mean the difference between having an unending stream of unnecessary support calls for a common situation or not.  The PHB looking at my timesheet would probably disagree.

Having said all that, "the page cannot be restored" is a candidate for worst error message in a very long time and should never have got past even the most cursory code review or testing.

ETA.
Setting "Goals"?  100% right behind you on that one. Complete waste of time and _everybody_ knows it.

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

ian

Re: The computing stuff rant thread
« Reply #1362 on: 28 February, 2017, 08:28:10 pm »
That's the thing, these are end user platforms designed to be used by idiots like me. I am very sorry the page couldn't be restored. Really I am. But I don't know what they expect me to do about it. Give me an escape plan that doesn't involve losing all my diligent copy and pasting. Can't save, can't submit, can't do shit. Those six tenets of corporate ennui don't improve through repetition.

If Finestre, the Demon of Such Things, has anything to do it, Hell will be eternity of cryptic 'Your file cannot be saved [OK]' insoluble error messages. Heaven℠ won't be much better, not given St Kevin of the Sparkles' low budget SAP implementation. Place has never been the same since it became part of JesusCorp. We're fucked whichever escalator we take. Melissa, the last living girl in Forest Hill, probably has it right. Smash the machines! Since The Breakdown and the entire Hillary thing, it's the only way to be sure.

Oh yeah, the Six Tenets of Corporate Ennui. Indeed, everyone hates them. They're like a rash that won't go away. They're easily gamed and at best exist as a tool of extreme demotivation. I think the only people who like them have those motivation posters on the wall.

TheLurker

  • Goes well with magnolia.
Re: The computing stuff rant thread
« Reply #1363 on: 01 March, 2017, 06:50:21 pm »
I telephone RBS today to tell them to send me a card without nasty NFC instead of the one they've just sent me.

I'm asked for sort code and account No.  which I duly give.

A long pause...."I'm sorry we can't find that account."

Really!? What kind of {insert long string of derogatory and obscene adjectives here} _BANK_ IT system can't find an account that I've held for over 36 years?  An account that they've just sent me a new card for?  I think I begin to see why they've failed to make any profits for the last 10 years. 

Only took an hour and a half to resolve.
Τα πιο όμορφα ταξίδια γίνονται με τις δικές μας δυνάμεις - Φίλοι του Ποδήλατου

Re: The computing stuff rant thread
« Reply #1364 on: 01 March, 2017, 09:34:06 pm »
Really!? What kind of {insert long string of derogatory and obscene adjectives here} _BANK_ IT system can't ...

You say that like you think _BANK_ IT systems might be expected to be something special.

RBS's software was written to run on these:



They've updated the hardware, but the software lives on under a million patches. You're lucky it was an hour and a half - it's not so long ago they lost half a million transactions and it took three days to find them. They are not alone - apparently 82 of the top 100 retail banks worldwide run core systems written in COBOL in the 1960s.
Quote from: tiermat
that's not science, it's semantics.

TheLurker

  • Goes well with magnolia.
Re: The computing stuff rant thread
« Reply #1365 on: 02 March, 2017, 07:04:12 pm »
Really!? What kind of {insert long string of derogatory and obscene adjectives here} _BANK_ IT system can't ...
You say that like you think _BANK_ IT systems might be expected to be something special.
{snip}
Given that a (the?) core element of their business requires keeping track of customer accounts then a bank system that can't do something as basic as that is +seriously+ fucked.
Τα πιο όμορφα ταξίδια γίνονται με τις δικές μας δυνάμεις - Φίλοι του Ποδήλατου

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: The computing stuff rant thread
« Reply #1366 on: 08 March, 2017, 12:31:10 am »
Thunderbollocks appears to have issues with checking IMAP folders other than the Inbox for new messages (I've just found a rich vein of unread email).  This appears to be exacerbated by stunning lack of developer interest in adding RFC5465 NOTIFY support, which would appear to be the correct solution to the problem.

This isn't the 1990s any more.  People don't just use one mail client.  Server-side filtering is the sanest option.  Are they all using gmail or something?

barakta

  • Bastard lovechild of Yomiko Readman and Johnny 5
Re: The computing stuff rant thread
« Reply #1367 on: 08 March, 2017, 02:26:49 pm »
My mother and tech support. This should be a computer-user rant item as it's not the computer's fault (although Thunderbollocks, Pusnet and AOL are all involved and DON'T HELP!).

Dear Mother,

You pay attention to your laptop for about 10 minutes every fortnight and then SCREECH about how it didn't magically know what you wanted to do and give you a button for it RIGHT THERE on startup. Slow down, pay attention, READ or look at things carefully and surprisingly you're capable of working things out... Or you can SCREECH at me down a phone, where I can't SEE what you're doing as you click wildly at things.

There's no point TEACHING you things cos you won't retain the info cos you'll get interrupted, wander off, ignore the computer for at least another fortnight and usually only try to use it when you're tired and stressed.

"Where's my blank piece of paper programme?" (She wants the template document icon I made her in 1993 which had a Winnie the Pooh on it).
"There's no dock here" (necessitating a description of how to find it, look at what's on it at which point she raced ahead and started clicking things I couldn't see).
"It's not opening a new document" (Give it a minute, it isn't instantaneous).
"There's nothing which says how to put a table in this. I DO think they should have a thing" (requiring me to ask her what menus she could see, directing her to the right one, out of the wrong one I accidentally got her to click on and so on).
"WAAAAAH I've selected what I want (inset table dialogue in Libre Office) but the options INSERT CANCEL HELP aren't what I want!"

And that's before we had Thunderbollocks refusing to see a new email account folder that I made for her despite turning it off and on again. Pusnet thrashes here and Mum's husband likes AOL even though the latency spikes at random for no apparent reason. So fuck knows what that issue was. Mum seems to want 4889354577 folders with about 3 files in each.

When asked why she keeps forwarding emails from her inbox to herself again (she's done this THREE times on one email in 4 days) she claimed it was cos on her phone it was deleted and she couldn't undelete but could send (which is bollocks).

"I DON'T LIKE IT the new emails are at the bottom not the top" (Cue patient explanation of clicking on the date bar to resort... She has been told about these ELEVENTY times).
"WAAAH I can't see the email from $Foo" (I eventually got her to find email from $Bar and then look at the one above it) "It's NOT obvious" (it was totes fucking obvious, she just wanted to screech rather than READ).

I think her stupid forwarding habit means she's looking for $FOO as sender and not seeing it, cos SHE'S the fucking sender... But won't admit that cos she knows I might actually lose patience and be scathing at her. She WANTS the computer to know it's $FOO email even though SHE resent it.

I'm still pissed off nearly 24 hours after that fun phonecall. There's no good solutions to it cos she needs to sit down, calm down, pay more attention and rather than waiting till she's HACKED OFF that she can't do MAGIC-THING she needs to ask for help sooner which I'd happily give (if she isn't screechy and annoying).

Should take her technology away!

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: The computing stuff rant thread
« Reply #1368 on: 08 March, 2017, 02:31:58 pm »
I still think Pine would be a good solution.  Nice clear button-pressing based interface that you can write meaningful cheat-notes for.  And since it's text-only, she wouldn't spew as many blurry grandchildren photos with it, which would help towards the data bloat problem.

Re: The computing stuff rant thread
« Reply #1369 on: 08 March, 2017, 02:38:37 pm »
I still think Pine would be a good solution.  Nice clear button-pressing based interface that you can write meaningful cheat-notes for.  And since it's text-only, she wouldn't spew as many blurry grandchildren photos with it, which would help towards the data bloat problem.

Elm would be even more old school text based and I think is even still supported.
I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that.

TimC

  • Old blerk sometimes onabike.
Re: The computing stuff rant thread
« Reply #1370 on: 08 March, 2017, 05:38:35 pm »
My Dad is somewhat similar, calling me sometimes several times a week to ask 'Why isn't my bloody computer doing what I want?', or 'The computer has gone bloody mad'. I even took to driving the 50-mile round trip to click a bloody button for him. No more.

I told him that computers and their resident programs are generally logical and (at least the ones I installed for him) simple. I told him to do a computer course on his next cruise. And I made it possible to remotely access his computer from my home. Lastly, I left him in no doubt that I wouldn't tolerate his tantrums. If he could fly a bloody fighter, he can drive a bloody computer.

Or not; his choice.

Re: The computing stuff rant thread
« Reply #1371 on: 08 March, 2017, 06:28:46 pm »
And I made it possible to remotely access his computer from my home.
This. I use TeamViewer, probably as recommended by someone here. Free (with the occasional nag) for home use.
Doesn't help when Mother's kittens have run across the keyboard and turned the wifi off, but we're used to that one now.
"No matter how slow you go, you're still lapping everybody on the couch."

barakta

  • Bastard lovechild of Yomiko Readman and Johnny 5
Re: The computing stuff rant thread
« Reply #1372 on: 08 March, 2017, 06:50:25 pm »
Mum isn't normally *this* bad, but I think she's trying to do too much as 'secretary' for hubby's business when she finds that sort of thing very tiring, childcare for grandchildren and all the crazy plans she has going on. She was a teacher, she's perfectly ABLE to read, but cos she doesn't use the computer enough she's not retaining how to do stuff.

Fortunately I don't drive so visiting is not immediately easy and i know even if I planned a visit, she'd be running around doing eleventy million other 'important' things and never actually sit down and do computer stuff. That's what happens EVERY visit.

ian

Re: The computing stuff rant thread
« Reply #1373 on: 08 March, 2017, 09:41:26 pm »
I'm off to visit my parents tomorrow. I will, of course, be fixing their computer while I am there. They bought a new laptop at Christmas (I said I'd get them one, but oh no, the next thing I heard they'd bought it themselves despite having no clue), paid PC World to transfer their accounts and email etc. which obviously went spiffingly because 'oh, we can't log in'. Did they go back to PC World and demand they sort it out? Oh no, that would be too simple. Just leave it lying around for a couple of months.

It'll start with 'so, what's your password?' to which the answer will be 'oh, I don't know that' and continue from there. On the plus side, if they can't log in, it reduces the rate at which the usual sludge of viruses accrete. That said, I'm sure it'll have picked up a few via osmosis.

David Martin

  • Thats Dr Oi You thankyouverymuch
Re: The computing stuff rant thread
« Reply #1374 on: 08 March, 2017, 10:42:22 pm »
We have a network for Life sciences that is separate from the main uni network (which again is a differnet subnet to any of the many wifi networks). The gateway between them has some holes to allow traffic through. Unfortunately I cannot always test everything as I would like for access to my teaching server, a VM on the LifeSci network, when teaching students who are variously on the uni wired network in the IT suites, or on wireless.
So, today I find that I cannot access my RStudioServer install (needed because of Linux specific software on the back end.

An impromptu teaching segment on SSH tunnelling ensued with a subsequent delay of 20% of the teaching time. We will make that up tomorrow.
"By creating we think. By living we learn" - Patrick Geddes