so, about that major update

[Seregil]

Originally Posted by rob

At least @Seregil put a smiley face after his comment, so I'm going to assume he wasn't serious.

Oh, my sarcasm is aimed at the average user. The "why wouldn't I install yet another toolbar in my browser" guy. He's the guy of guy that doesn't read any of the instructions, doesn't do patches unless they're forced and is completely clueless about anything with a transistor in it.

I work in IT and my opinion of Joe User is very low. I meant it that way, sorry if came across as snark towards the dev team.

[ShadowChemosh]

Originally Posted by Seregil

Oh, my sarcasm is aimed at the average user. The "why wouldn't I install yet another toolbar in my browser" guy. He's the guy of guy that doesn't read any of the instructions, doesn't do patches unless they're forced and is completely clueless about anything with a transistor in it.

I work in IT and my opinion of Joe User is very low. I meant it that way, sorry if came across as snark towards the dev team.

This is why they say 90% of computer problems happen between the chair and the keyboard.

[kbs666]

Originally Posted by rob

It seems some of you have a very low opinion of our ability to consider these factors. Yes, we are taking these factors into consideration. I'm not going to go into all sorts of silly details that will just be a distraction from continuing development on everything that's still in the works.

Having worked in software my whole adult life and dealt with many small companies in that time questions like these do need to be asked. You would apparently be amazed at how often things like that haven't been considered.

[jkthomsen9]

Originally Posted by ShadowChemosh

This is why they say 90% of computer problems happen between the chair and the keyboard.

This actuality made me LOL.

[DMG]

It's called a PICNIC error. Problem In Chair Not In Computer.

[Asandir]

Also called a PEBSAK error. Problem Exists Between Seat and Keyboard.

[Parody]

PEBCAK, ID10T (eye-dee-ten-tee), and so on. Plenty of variants you have to be careful about; when I worked in tech support using those terms with a caller was a potentially fireable offense. Not that it stopped us from using them offline or in the call database. (Heck, I wrote a parody of The Ballad of Gilligan's Isle into the database once about a call that just wouldn't end. :)

[kbs666]

Back at the turn of the century I was working for a small software company and we sent out a major update to a piece of software and as one of the newer developers I was one of the people fielding CS calls that the call center guys couldn't resolve. So I get a call from what seems like a perfectly reasonable and nice person who is having a problem that no one has been able to figure out. After listening to him describe the problem I realize the problem almost has to be in a config file so I have him open it. First problem, he has no idea how to do so. I have to explain in incredibly simple terms how to find and open the file. Sure enough the problem is the config file has somehow gotten garbled. So he simply needs to edit one line to fix his problem. He can't. I have to explain what deleting stuff is and how to save the file and he gets confused and refuses to do anything. Then it turns out he doesn't have email so he can't even send me the file. The program was installed on the laptop by an employee so eventually I did get it fixed but it was amazing how completely computer illiterate this person was in 2000 or 2001.

[Lexin]

Originally Posted by kbs666

...but it was amazing how completely computer illiterate this person was in 2000 or 2001.

How old were they? My late mother (died in 2011 at the age of 87) had a computer she'd bought on the advice of a neighbour, and she was pretty good at sending and receiving emails, right up until she got to the point that she was confined to bed. She could also do simple searches using google. Though do note: never, ever give an elderly hypochondriac google. As you value your and her doctor's sanity, just don't do it.

But there was no way on earth she would have been able to do anything around editing inside config files or using regedit. Anything like that was way, way beyond her understanding and she would have been terrified she'd be launching missiles over Birmingham.

Even I think twice about doing that kind of thing, and I've been using computers since the mid 80s. Plus, when I worked I had colleagues younger than me whose understanding of their computers was way, way less than mine.

[kbs666]

I have no idea but he was probably in his 40's or 50's. He was a reasonably successful businessman.