Good thing you told me...

I ran into one of those issues today that just leave you stunned. Usually I do fairly well with reminding myself that not everyone is as acquainted with computers as I am, or computer savvy, or really computer literate at all. In fact, there are folks out there using computers in their day-to-day that really should not be allowed to touch them. You can't do as much damage to life and limb with a computer as you can with, say, a car, but I sometimes wonder if we should license these people. At the very least they would save the IT departments of the world from the sting of constant facepalms.

Case in point. I received a complaint that the email program on this person's computer was no longer notifying them of email via a sound or a pop-up window. I sent a test and was surprised to find that they were not exaggerating the issue - nothing happened when my email arrived. I made sure the settings were configured correctly, restarted the program and tried again - nothing. 'Odd,' I thought.

I recalled that some email rules can suppress the alerts if the email is moved to another folder, so I checked their email rules...and that is when I found it. The most impressive display of blatant ignorance I've seen in quite some time.

Oh they had rules alright, only about 6 or 8, but it's not the number that stunned me, it was their tasks. Each rule was basically the same: If an email came from a specific email address Outlook was to move that email to...wait for it...the Inbox! And the piece de resistance - a rule that would take any message that came in and move it to the Inbox and then stop processing all other rules!

Lo and behold as soon as I turned off the offending madness the email alerts started working again. Still, I have to wonder why they would set up these rules. Where did they think their email was going before?

Software testing -part 2

The BlogPress folks have anew update which let me actually open the program again. Now let's see if they fixed their other problems. This should be a separate line.

Guess not. Looks like it's time to find another app.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad and then fixed with another program

Software testing

Having worked as a Beta Test Team Lead for a software company I find that I have less tolerance for bugs in applications I purchase.

Recently the upgrade to iOS 5 prompted many developers to post updates for their apps. The makers of BlogPress took almost two months to finally release their update and first thing that happened after downloading it -it crashed!

As I started winding up for a tirade about poor testing protocols even after a lengthy wait they posted an slight change on their app page in the store advising everyone to delete the app entirely and redownload. Not a fantastic fix, but enough to stop me in mid-rant.

Unfortunately, my wife may have found another problem with it, that it does not recognize double line breaks to create paragraphs properly. Hopefully this little test post will show that we are still dealing with a WYSIWYG interface.

Apparently not, however. I went to write a scathing review of their now crappy app only to discover that it is no longer listed in the app store. Well big freaking surprise!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad and then corrected using some other app

Google by proxy...

Working on a corporate support desk I mostly deal with questions specific to our in-house applications, network or VoIP setup. Occasionally, however, someone puts in a ticket asking for help with MS Office or some other incidental application that we use, but with which I am not wholly familiar.

When I run into this kind of program at home I follow a simple set of troubleshooting steps: 1) Poke around the menus and try various options to see if they do whatever it is I am looking for. 2) Use Google to search for an answer.

I suppose that my customers have simply replaced step 2 with Something along the lines of 'consult resident computer geek.' In some cases I think this method works well for them because I do actually know the answer, but for the more obscure questions I turn to the encyclopedia mundi. I put my question before the concentrated intellect on the Internet and wait. Digging through unhelpful opinions, ignorant rants, pointless trolling and bad grammar I glean the answer from those that have gone before. Dragging the meat of the answer back to my customer and presenting it like a trophy kill from a hunting trip.

An interesting metaphor for which is nothing more, really, than doing the dirty work for somebody else. They get to sit back and relax while I hunt their answers for them. I am the servant typing in their search term and reading the results back to them. It's Google by proxy

There's something about that phrase that sound really cool. I wonder if I could make it into a t-shirt...

Looks like I'm the guinea pig

Some of the executives in my company have opted to carry an iPad instead of a laptop. Not a bad way to travel considering the differences in weight, but similar capabilities. The unfortunate down-side is that an iPad is a target for theft such that you are not even safe leaving it in view on your car seat while you pop in for a bite to eat.

As a new iPad owner it has fallen to me to troubleshoot some of the problems these executives run into and then try to explain why, in Apple's infinite wisdom, they aren't allowed to do certain things. On occasion, however, I get to test a new gadget or application, all in the name of work.

For example, I am currently typing up this blog on a Bluetooth keyboard I was given to test. While not personally to my taste I'm sure some executive will enjoy adding it to his luggage. That is until they plug in the charging cable and find that the charge port has no support other than its contacts which snap like threads when put under the slightest pressure. In other words, I broke the Bluetooth keyboard when I moved it while it was plugged in to charge.

Oddly enough they haven't given me any more gadgets to test since...


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Phenomenal cosmic power...

...itty bitty Living space.

Since the iPad arrived I've spent very little time on my desktop computers. As I thought about that this morning I realized that this little pad probably has more power than half of my towers and it's about the same size as my first computer, a Sinclair ZX80.

I've been doing everything I would normally do downstairs in my office, on my iPad upsatirs instead. I even remote into work through VMware View which connects me to a virtual desktop on our servers.

I'll stop before I start sounding more like an ad for Apple. Let's just say it's cool and I love it.

Recycling the old can be fun, but...

New stuff is pretty damned good too.

Previously I've written about grabbing old tech as it heads out the door to be recycled. My most recent project involved taking the CPU from one box with a dead motherboard and installing it in another old box that was being put out to pasture. At the end of the day I am proud to say I had a working machine to play games on again and all I spent was $10 for thermal grease. Recycling old tech is rewarding in it's way.

Flash forward to this morning when, during a landmark birthday, I was presented with a new, still-in-the-box iPad. I've been absolutely floored by this. Not just by the new toy, but by the organization and contributions from all those involved in bringing it to be. As I sit and play with it (I am typing this blog on it as a matter of fact) I find myself thinking that, while old tech can still be fun to play with, new tech rocks!

Thank you one and all for your parts in making this happen. I am deeply touched. Now I'm going to go play some more.