Groups > comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action > #48721

Re: Well, that's unexpected (Speedball reboot)

From	vallor <vallor@cultnix.org>
Newsgroups	comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action
Subject	Re: Well, that's unexpected (Speedball reboot)
Date	2024-11-05 09:32 +0000
Organization	A noiseless patient Spider
Message-ID	<vgcomq$1epct$1@dont-email.me> (permalink)
References	(5 earlier) <vg6i9i$1nfi$1@dont-email.me> <6u5fijdsfb6n1s6uir45sjp13pod4i1qdf@4ax.com> <v8ufijljj5gpk400cahv61ha5nbhecjj5c@4ax.com> <vg94d1$jtm6$1@dont-email.me> <puphijdcopm65fbpjo58tve9qo3b7kr1bd@4ax.com>

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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.

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.)

-- 
-Scott System76 Thelio Mega v1.1 x86_64 NVIDIA RTX 3090 Ti
   OS: Linux 6.11.6 Release: Mint 21.3 Mem: 258G
   "Clones are people two."

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Well, that's unexpected (Speedball reboot) Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> - 2024-10-29 12:16 -0400
  Re: Well, that's unexpected (Speedball reboot) JAB <noway@nochance.com> - 2024-10-30 09:33 +0000
    Re: Well, that's unexpected (Speedball reboot) Justisaur <justisaur@gmail.com> - 2024-11-01 22:13 -0700
      Re: Well, that's unexpected (Speedball reboot) JAB <noway@nochance.com> - 2024-11-10 11:59 +0000
        Re: Well, that's unexpected (Speedball reboot) Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> - 2024-11-10 10:21 -0500
          Re: Well, that's unexpected (Speedball reboot) Justisaur <justisaur@gmail.com> - 2024-11-14 19:46 -0800
            Re: Well, that's unexpected (Speedball reboot) ant@zimage.comANT (Ant) - 2024-11-15 16:04 +0000
              Re: Well, that's unexpected (Speedball reboot) Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> - 2024-11-15 12:17 -0500
          Re: Well, that's unexpected (Speedball reboot) Anssi Saari <anssi.saari@usenet.mail.kapsi.fi> - 2024-11-15 13:15 +0200
            Re: Well, that's unexpected (Speedball reboot) ant@zimage.comANT (Ant) - 2024-11-15 16:05 +0000
        Re: Well, that's unexpected (Speedball reboot) Kyonshi <gmkeros@gmail.com> - 2024-11-13 13:00 +0100
  Re: Well, that's unexpected (Speedball reboot) Zaghadka <zaghadka@hotmail.com> - 2024-10-30 11:03 -0500
  Re: Well, that's unexpected (Speedball reboot) ant@zimage.comANT (Ant) - 2024-10-30 18:20 +0000
  Re: Well, that's unexpected (Speedball reboot) Geeknix <usenet@apple.geeknix135.net> - 2024-10-31 23:00 +0000
    Re: Well, that's unexpected (Speedball reboot) Geeknix <usenet@apple.geeknix135.net> - 2024-11-01 11:30 +0000
      Re: Well, that's unexpected (Speedball reboot) Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> - 2024-11-01 10:31 -0400
    Re: Well, that's unexpected (Speedball reboot) JAB <noway@nochance.com> - 2024-11-01 11:41 +0000
      Re: Well, that's unexpected (Speedball reboot) Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> - 2024-11-01 08:06 -0700
        Re: Well, that's unexpected (Speedball reboot) Xocyll <Xocyll@gmx.com> - 2024-11-02 09:16 -0400
          Re: Well, that's unexpected (Speedball reboot) Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> - 2024-11-02 18:05 -0700
            Re: Well, that's unexpected (Speedball reboot) Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> - 2024-11-03 10:39 -0500
              Re: Well, that's unexpected (Speedball reboot) Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> - 2024-11-03 09:52 -0800
              Re: Well, that's unexpected (Speedball reboot) Zaghadka <zaghadka@hotmail.com> - 2024-11-03 16:33 -0600
                Re: Well, that's unexpected (Speedball reboot) Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> - 2024-11-03 16:27 -0800
                Re: Well, that's unexpected (Speedball reboot) Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> - 2024-11-04 10:34 -0500
                Re: Well, that's unexpected (Speedball reboot) Mike S. <Mike_S@nowhere.com> - 2024-11-04 12:39 -0500
                Re: Well, that's unexpected (Speedball reboot) Zaghadka <zaghadka@hotmail.com> - 2024-11-04 11:46 -0600
                Re: Well, that's unexpected (Speedball reboot) vallor <vallor@cultnix.org> - 2024-11-05 09:32 +0000
                Re: Well, that's unexpected (Speedball reboot) Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> - 2024-11-05 10:53 -0500
                Re: Well, that's unexpected (Speedball reboot) Zaghadka <zaghadka@hotmail.com> - 2024-11-05 12:25 -0600
                Re: Well, that's unexpected (Speedball reboot) Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> - 2024-11-05 18:19 -0800
                Re: Well, that's unexpected (Speedball reboot) ant@zimage.comANT (Ant) - 2024-11-06 02:41 +0000
                Re: Well, that's unexpected (Speedball reboot) Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> - 2024-11-06 07:22 -0800
                Re: Well, that's unexpected (Speedball reboot) ant@zimage.comANT (Ant) - 2024-11-07 02:44 +0000
                Re: Well, that's unexpected (Speedball reboot) candycanearter07 <candycanearter07@candycanearter07.nomail.afraid> - 2024-11-08 00:00 +0000
                Re: Well, that's unexpected (Speedball reboot) Justisaur <justisaur@gmail.com> - 2024-11-05 19:27 -0800
                Re: Well, that's unexpected (Speedball reboot) JAB <noway@nochance.com> - 2024-11-06 10:35 +0000
                Re: Well, that's unexpected (Speedball reboot) Zaghadka <zaghadka@hotmail.com> - 2024-11-06 18:50 -0600
                Re: Well, that's unexpected (Speedball reboot) Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> - 2024-11-05 18:18 -0800
                Re: Well, that's unexpected (Speedball reboot) ant@zimage.comANT (Ant) - 2024-11-06 02:41 +0000
                Re: Well, that's unexpected (Speedball reboot) Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> - 2024-11-06 07:25 -0800
                Re: Well, that's unexpected (Speedball reboot) Zaghadka <zaghadka@hotmail.com> - 2024-11-06 18:53 -0600
                Re: Well, that's unexpected (Speedball reboot) Mike S. <Mike_S@nowhere.com> - 2024-11-04 09:27 -0500
  Re: Well, that's unexpected (Speedball reboot) Samuel Söderberg <samuel@samuelsoderberg.se> - 2024-11-01 11:36 +0000
    Re: Well, that's unexpected (Speedball reboot) Samuel Söderberg <samuel@samuelsoderberg.se> - 2024-11-01 12:31 +0000
    Re: Well, that's unexpected (Speedball reboot) Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> - 2024-11-01 10:36 -0400

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