On 01/25/2019 06:10 AM, Harvard Horvath wrote:
[Default] On Sat, 19 Jan 2019 10:10:37 -0800, The Real Bev
wrote this crap:


I'm glad I bought a cheap one. The result is fine technically but sucks
artistically. It claims to be phone-controllable, but whenever I try to
link them up the android app crashes. I need to phone Wasp, but I dread
talking to helpdroids. One of these days.

(This needs a new thread.)

Did you read the directions? Did you interpret them properly? In our
engineering classes at MIT we learned the most likely cause of error
is not following the directions.

Indeed. I followed the directions (pretty simple, actually) repeatedly.
A problem with directions is that the writers occasionally make
errors, or that the directions apply to an earlier version of the
hardware and are no longer applicable. I'm willing to believe that I'm
screwing up in some way, I just dread talking to helpdroids.

I've often thought that anything as complex as a toaster needs a full
instruction manual.

Long ago, when he was writing cross-assemblers for single-purpose
microprocessors, my husband prophesied that one day there would be
chips even in TOASTERS!

A while back one particular model claimed to have a Bread Brain.

But the bean counters won't allow that. So why
not have a CD with the full manual on it? The cost of the CD is about
ten cents. Or at least a website with the instruction manual on it,
in the form of a pfd for printing out.

Websites with .pdf files are fine. Preferable actually, as long as the
..pdfs offered are searchable. Some are not :-( I no longer want the
nice factory repair manual (I'm done fixing cars; I know a guy who's
good at it and I can afford him), but I put my car's 250-page user
manual on my phone as well as my computer. The radio has its own
manual. Life was a lot simpler when there were just a few buttons to push.

I like the idea of a CD because you can put advertising on it and make
it pay for itself. How about advertising aspirin for the headache you
get trying to get the product to work? Or beer advertising? for when
you finally get it to work the way you want.

:-) Storage problems. HD space is cheap. We even have spare 8TB
drives in case the ones we're using die. I've never had an HD die, but
**** happens.

Then they tell you, "What if someone doesn't have a computer." If you
can afford a toaster, then you can afford electricity, and you most
likely have a computer. And if you STILL don't have a computer, you
probably have access to one in the form of a friend, neighbor,
relative, public library, Kinkos, etc. After all, if Trunky can have
a computer, anyone can have one.

People who have no access to an information device don't need one.

--
Cheers, Bev
"Screw the end users. If they want good software,
let them write it themselves." -- Anon.