Re: Concepts are hard to understand
That's a good tip. I thought you were going to talk in terms of master pages and formatting with page styles' rules. (Stuff I've heard of but never needed to get a handle on).
5589 publicly visible posts • joined 31 Jul 2009
Pretty much what i do with my desktops.
The laptop is a sore point. Long conversation with Dell before I bought it. Yes there will be space inside the chassis for a second HDD and a connection for it....
It had neither . I complained, they apologised but did nothing. That was my last ever Dell. (Last PC was also Dell.Latest PC is Chillblast btw).
And the laptop's SSD began to fail just after warranty ended. Laptop's performance was slower than I expected too, quite sluggish for an i7- which is relevant. Bought a larger Samsung SSD as a replacement. Suddenly the laptop performance was much better too, no more sluggishness! (Told you it was relevant). Still not going to buy Dell ever again
And on Windows systems, if the partition with Windows and other programmes gets too cramped, and if there is adequate total HDD space resizing partitions is relatively easy. Though not so much with the Windows built-in control,which is remarkable stupid- It's good for carving a new partition out, but not for resizing-when you shrink a partition from the left it won't let you expand the adjacent partition to its right,where the space is ( or is it the other way round - I forget). But there are plenty of reliable partitioning programmes around. AOMEI partition assistant (free) has done sterling work for me over the years. I've always tested a new programme on a partition, or a spare drive, that hasn't anything important on it/when I get a new system before I copy the data to it. I have plenty of old HDDs that I can play with- and a few I stick into new systems as backup drives or simply to make copying data over easier. Current PC has my old 2Tb HDD in it just for messing about with, dumping stuff to temporarily etc.
The Excel Lock and Protect thing strikes me as being fairly surreal.
By default everything is locked. Except that in practical terms nothing is locked. Not until you set "Protect" as well.
So to actually protect, say, a formula, you have to unlock everything else and then protect the document. With a concomitant risk of forgetting one of those stages and sitting scratching your head wondering why the thing can't be edited where you need to /be protected from changes where they mustn't be changed..
Who thought that this made sense?
User files, not settings. The data we work with. And this should never be tangled up with the software settings. Or even on the same partition.
I thought my 'nux files were on a separate partition. In fact though it's a few years since I used 'nux (MINT) I'd have sworn to it.
I've never had any problem moving those locations (right click, location tab) to where I want them. But then I know where to find them to start with.
My home office files are on a separate drive. Partitioned with my sets of folders (T:|) My wife's (her initial:) family stuff (F:\) Photos(P:\) etc. etc.
And all the software seems happy to default to saving in these locations - though again it's a matter of knowing how to find the right settings' locations.
This was my thought. Users should only be able to save stuff where it is meant to be saved. Presumably in this day and age on a network, in a network share. One dedicated to that person or that project or team as appropriate. Maybe even a personal folder for their own use, strictly at their own risk since that one won't be backed up and may even be on the local machine's spare space. But on the strict understanding that no work related files go in there -on pain of having the privilege removed and a disciplinary.
As to where Windows puts files. Madness. Buried in the C: drive in a concealed folder within "Documents and settings" as if user data was in some way equivalent to OS function and needed the same kind of access.
I assume built upon the misguided view that computing would all work by using desktop search to locate files. You'd type in "Johnson" and the files for the Johnson account would all appear. Some times it even works.
Sadly, not a new fad. Some 15 years ago it was built into the (then) National Professional Qualification for Headteachers and equivalent for Advisory teachers. And underlying it is a degree of management consultant pseudo-science that would take an entire industrial sized compost bin just to store the surface layers.
capable of accessing the accumulated knowledge of the human race
Or rather, what Google/Microsoft(Bing) want to show you. Which is usually 300+ adverts for products that are dimly related to what you wanted to find out about and little or nothing about the actual subject you did want to learn about other then where it's sold.
No. Windows tells you what software is associated with that file.*
Which is often just the programme that Microsoft wants you to use. e.g. Edge browser. Assuming that there is a programme associated with that data file, of course, which there might not be if, for example, it's a stand-alone/portable application.
*Assuming it's a data file and not an executable of course. As in "Something-innocent.txt.exe.
This stopped the installer as it checked all the files early on in the process and stopped when it couldn’t find one.
And presumably didn't report which one was missing/allow installer to locate it from elsewhere/skip installation if non-essential or already present.
Small rant coming.
Some years ago I stopped ever buying anything by HP. Because I'd had a printer. Which tried to upgrade its drivers and bloated software. And started the upgrade by removing all the previous files. Then failed to install the new ones because one of those previous files was still in situ. Nothing would remove that file. (With hindsight I should have booted into my PC with 'nux and then tried but this was many years ago now.) Nor would it allow me to install into a different location. Nor would it skip over that file and try with the existing one still in place. Which was particularly annoying because it had the same f****ing version number .
</rant>
Funnily enough in my amateur way that's been my thought for a long time.
Either file extension names are irrelevant or they need to be visible. And since some programmes save files with their own extensions/formats rather than a standard one, I find this essential. Photoshop ( Elements) defaults to a proprietary format. Which is fine until I need it in .JPG to organise or share. So I need to see which is which. My old camcorder used to save files with its own extension - which then had to be renamed to the normal one for that format before I could edit them. The format was standard, they just used a different extension in the machine!!!
IOW For me they are useful to see what kind of file I'm messing with - so why does Windows hide them from me?
I'd argue that you give conspirators too much credit. Yes, far too many MPs are idiots. But they are selected to stand for that seat by selection committees who are looking for someone to represent themselves. (Assuming that they even have the material to choose from). So it's not a question of foreign influence so much as that the Activists who make this choice are themselves idiots.
It's not, to be frank, even their own popularity in most cases- in fact when it is in the UK they're often pretty good MPs too. - It's often just blind partisan factionalism. Places where a Tory will always/never get in, for example. And even a chimp wearing the right rosette would get elected.
Or where a far left Champagne Socialist will always get elected - possibly even if an ordinary member of the party might not.
Maybe, but if you read those words and try to forget your technical skills and instead adopt the mindset of a career politician who's only skills are in getting people onside, who's eyes glaze over at the sound of anything technical and who has admin staff to do the keyboard stuff - you'd have a better idea how this sort of crap gets adopted.
Start with "access a computer". It sounds like something smart and technical- and certainly devious. Add "computer network". This sounds like some kind of espionage, probably involving (gasp) hacking and visions of green screens full of flashing numbers to bypass the access denied message. And all this is done "intentionally". Everyone knows that doing something intentionally has to be sinister because the public are all sheep who are meant to just do as we're told.
Which is fine. Accepting 'Nux as an OS of choice for a techie minority makes perfectly good sense. And indeed as an OS to underlie massive commercial organisations and even other OSes.
But there are still those here on El Reg who dream of a Windows free world in which Linux is on everyone's desktop and Microsoft is no more. And I have no problem with that concept. I'd be happy with it myself. But it won't happen when there are vast numbers of versions, every version is slightly different, they all have fanciful names and each has it's own forks with similar names.
"Google does not offer users the option to just purchase extra storage,"
With that line comes the sign posting that a free offering was never a long term intention. Else they'd cover the stated increased costs of hosting so many user institutions by charging for the excess rather than mandating a full paid subscription.
Oh yes, as is often the case, this is not a new thing and existed long before there was any such thing as IT in any modern sense.
Visit any city and there will be buildings ( especially schools in my experience ) built on the cheap with the expectation that they'll be good for 20-30 years. But 30-50 years on the buildings are still in use, extremely expensive to maintain and are starting to fail. Renovating them is prohibitively expensive. There's no funding to replace them and even if there was there's nowhere to store the kids or patients or families or.... etc... for they years it would take to demolish the old one and build a new one.
But whether it's storage for bytes or kids it's the same game of pass-the-exploding-parcel, with the people who set it up usually having made sure they're off to pastures new well before the ticking stops.If it's to a new institution that won't matter, because they'll be able to blame the previous incumbent.
It's in many ways worse than that. When the high court makes an unpopular ruling ( because sometimes "The Law" isn't what people want or imagine it to be) the populist politicians - in government or just near to it-see their favourite papers whipping up a little storm and try to take advantage of it, whether it's to use that to support their own agenda or simply to accrue populism points.
They both froth. Both froth about urban myths and moral panics. Just different ones.
Grauniad readers tend to be internationalist, mostly white middle class and think that they have a White Saviour's obligation to (selected) minorities.
DM readers tend to be nationalist, mostly white middle class ( but maybe a bit older) and think they only have an obligation to their "own kind".
The UK's equivalent (DBS) has had a few difficulties over the years.
On the whole it seems ok now. It seems to work by checking your entry on the various black lists etc.. It has to be renewed every few years but I don't know why and there's also an annual auto-renewal system which deducts £13 direct debit.
Which is fine, but begs the question of what is a renewal for. (However you define "begging the question").
Is it just to make sure we're still alive? Or is that the only time it's updated and the lists checked? Renewing it seems to be an end in itself.
been fobbing him off with 'we are working on it, it will be sorted soon' .
Surely the point is that doing this to customers is a stupid, pointless and ultimately self-defeating strategy.
Why was said minion even trying to fob off customers? They're not going to look back at several hours/days of frustration and think "I'm glad they didn't tell me".
something vaguely near,
Oh yes, the forum favourite. Referring you to a link that has a related keyword or two.
Q) How do I resolve the menu section of the programme going black with a black font when I select an item from the screen?
A) Read this page xyz.com/how-to-select-menu-items....
No point wanting to strangle the phone jockey. They're probably being gas lighted by their own management, who've given them the same bollocks information they're passing on to us. At least if Virgin Media is typical. If VM's servers were being attacked by Martian invaders the service status would still say there were no problems ( though to be fair in that circumstance they could probably be excused) and the phone support staff would still be wanting to test your Hub's connections, being completely unaware of the chaos raging.
Close. It's assumed ( probably wrongly) that most people can use a computer. BUT there is no justification in assuming they know how to use a particular (especially a not an everyday) programme or that they can and will follow procedures.
Every company is responsible for training and supporting its staff.But do they?
Many years back my late father was QC manager for a factory making coats for M&S.
The place was badly uninvested with antiquated machinery.
M&S had notoriously high standards ( then at least).
Dad had a precise spec to work to - anything outside that he'd reject.
There was a high reject rate, mostly caused by poorly performing, ancient, worn out machines.
The directors would then go in in the evening put the stuff back into the dispatch, at the bottom of the pile - like the recent Apprentice contestants tried with their dodgy fish. M&S' staff were quite capable of foreseeing that dodge. But unlike those contestants' customer M&S' approach was more rigid.They'd reject the whole consignment.
The bosses' response each time was to swear and shout and curse at, and as things got worse, to fire managers. But not to change things. Dad left before he was next to be fired.
A few months later they went bust. No surprise there- not after M&S withdrew their contract on the grounds of poor standards compliance..
What shocked me then, and I think dad as well, was that these directors would have taken the M&S contract, knowing the high standards required- but believed they could put one over on a company like M&S rather than try to meet the standards..
This has been a source of annoyance for many years. Design operations ( not just computery stuff of course) built upon what some remote manager well insulated from the daily grind imagines the job is, how the staff perform it and what their needs are. Completely forgetting/missing/being totally unaware of the major aspects of those workers' day. No one actually asks the peons what they need to do the job efficiently.
That could be anything from the manager's deciding to have one central printer in a four floor building saving a few quid in equipment costs while wasting up to 10 minutes on every 15 minute task while staff toil up and down the stairs, to not having any kind of backup system in place, let alone off-site because the manager has never had to even be aware that this goes on in his own office.
that they would continue to write down keystrokes.
If this is the usual situation users will have been given inadequate time to get a feel of the software, even less time to practice under guidance so that it becomes automatic and are then expected to go back and use the blessed, complicated ( to them if not to the trainers and developers) and unfamiliar programme in their day job, immediately, with time pressure. And probably to train the rest of the department.
When you are on the roundabout it's hard to remember, let alone read the "How to get offf the roundabout" guidance.
Big ( and maybe other) software companies- especially OS ( like Microsoft) - companies have done a pretty good job at training users to ignore onscreen messages. Because they've so often been unhelpful, irrelevant, or yes, pointless.
In this instance a little "disk full" message would, maybe not even registered with the user.
A big message saying "There is no more room on this disc. Please select one of these options to continue". with a list, might have saved a bit of angst.
Beyond the general concepts, none of this story means much to me.
But The general principles as applied to life do. Having several similar looking systems in the same place make a mis-selection almost inevitable.
A good and simple example. The Honda HR-V has the hazard and start buttons close to each other, near the centre of the console.. Though different shapes they are both reddish and about the same size. Inevitably drivers ( and yes, but not just me) will wish to thank a driver who's stopped to let us out of a side turning or parking slot or some such and switched off the engine instead. Which could be anything from embarrassing to bloody dangerous. The new e:H-RV has a few refinements, among which is that the Start button is now back to the other side of the wheel, roughly where you'd expect an ignition key to go.