My only problem is the fucking annoying habit of software corporations to translate everything, not just the GUI which makes sense, but even stdout error messages. This means not only translating back to English but even guessing the original wording, then googling. The worst part is they seriously think they are helpful here, thinking even IT people who read console error messages not always read English. How the heck are they supposed to solve problems then? I don’t think they still think people read documentation, do they?
Yeah, it’s a tricky thing. I’ve actually been involved in translation projects for global software, and the closest I can come to an answer is that they don’t really think anything at all… there’s several different divisions involved, and each one has bits of the picture, and it all just chunks along without anyone thinking it through end-to-end.
Really, a lot of software development, and of organizational activity more generally, is like that.
All of that said… yeah, the “user googles the error message for instructions” use case is not one that gets taken nearly seriously enough. This is also why you get error messages in dialog boxes that don’t support copy-and-paste. If it were, every error message would have a unique copy-able ID code .
It’s a nice joke, but I don’t think it’s actually good advice. There is a lot of background knowledge about how most computer software works that goes into actually executing the steps of this or similar procedures, e.g.
knowledge defining the “looks related” relation
knowledge about which things are likely to be destructive enough to exclude from “pick one at random”
knowledge about what “it worked” consists of when the shortest path to the goal is more than one step
But you acquire that background knowledge faster when you follow the procedure.
My mother is retired, and sits paralyzed in front of the computer not knowing what button to press. I try to explain that you’re unlikely to break anything, so just start looking around.
I initially tried giving my mother the “you’re unlikely to break anything” advice as well, then reconsidered after she’d followed that advice and gotten malware on the computer.
“Boot into this live-CD and you’re unlikely to break anything a reboot won’t fix.” (At least as long as you don’t use webmail or similar persistent online accounts that can get hacked by malware you downloaded into RAM during the same session.)
I learned most of what I learned -by- breaking things.
For example, I learned how page files worked because American Online and Dungeon Keeper both tried to seize them for themselves, and if Dungeon Keeper was run, AOL wouldn’t run subsequently without a reboot. Research on the issue turned up that disabling page filing would fix it, which led me to research page filing to see what disabling it would do.
I claim that you have a lot of background knowledge which gives your experimental actions a probability distribution much more like “unlikely to break anything” than hers.
Not really, and particularly not with the new managed computing environments (Android/Ipad) that don’t give you root. You can install programs they pre screen, and run them. And she’s not likely to install anything I hadn’t suggested. Just not a lot to break.
When in doubt, (<-back), (Home), or reboot, in that order.
Is there any kind of widespread problems with a google Nexus getting pwned?
Can relate, the weirdest habit of non-computer-literate people is 1) not reading what is on the screen 2) not trying to interpret even really simple instructions on the screen. Is there any sort of a cognitive explanation why do we have to have conversations like this?
“The computer froze.”
“Do you see a pop-up window with a message?”
“Yes.”
“Is there anything written into it?”
“Yes.”
“What?”
(squint, lean closer) “Posting Date must not be empty in...”
My only problem with this flow is that it waits far too long before Googling.
My only problem is the fucking annoying habit of software corporations to translate everything, not just the GUI which makes sense, but even stdout error messages. This means not only translating back to English but even guessing the original wording, then googling. The worst part is they seriously think they are helpful here, thinking even IT people who read console error messages not always read English. How the heck are they supposed to solve problems then? I don’t think they still think people read documentation, do they?
Yeah, it’s a tricky thing. I’ve actually been involved in translation projects for global software, and the closest I can come to an answer is that they don’t really think anything at all… there’s several different divisions involved, and each one has bits of the picture, and it all just chunks along without anyone thinking it through end-to-end.
Really, a lot of software development, and of organizational activity more generally, is like that.
All of that said… yeah, the “user googles the error message for instructions” use case is not one that gets taken nearly seriously enough. This is also why you get error messages in dialog boxes that don’t support copy-and-paste. If it were, every error message would have a unique copy-able ID code .
It’s a nice joke, but I don’t think it’s actually good advice. There is a lot of background knowledge about how most computer software works that goes into actually executing the steps of this or similar procedures, e.g.
knowledge defining the “looks related” relation
knowledge about which things are likely to be destructive enough to exclude from “pick one at random”
knowledge about what “it worked” consists of when the shortest path to the goal is more than one step
But you acquire that background knowledge faster when you follow the procedure.
My mother is retired, and sits paralyzed in front of the computer not knowing what button to press. I try to explain that you’re unlikely to break anything, so just start looking around.
I initially tried giving my mother the “you’re unlikely to break anything” advice as well, then reconsidered after she’d followed that advice and gotten malware on the computer.
“Boot into this live-CD and you’re unlikely to break anything a reboot won’t fix.” (At least as long as you don’t use webmail or similar persistent online accounts that can get hacked by malware you downloaded into RAM during the same session.)
I learned most of what I learned -by- breaking things.
For example, I learned how page files worked because American Online and Dungeon Keeper both tried to seize them for themselves, and if Dungeon Keeper was run, AOL wouldn’t run subsequently without a reboot. Research on the issue turned up that disabling page filing would fix it, which led me to research page filing to see what disabling it would do.
I claim that you have a lot of background knowledge which gives your experimental actions a probability distribution much more like “unlikely to break anything” than hers.
Not really, and particularly not with the new managed computing environments (Android/Ipad) that don’t give you root. You can install programs they pre screen, and run them. And she’s not likely to install anything I hadn’t suggested. Just not a lot to break.
When in doubt, (<-back), (Home), or reboot, in that order.
Is there any kind of widespread problems with a google Nexus getting pwned?
Can relate, the weirdest habit of non-computer-literate people is 1) not reading what is on the screen 2) not trying to interpret even really simple instructions on the screen. Is there any sort of a cognitive explanation why do we have to have conversations like this?
“The computer froze.”
“Do you see a pop-up window with a message?”
“Yes.”
“Is there anything written into it?”
“Yes.”
“What?”
(squint, lean closer) “Posting Date must not be empty in...”
“What do you think it means?”
“Ugh, fill out the Posting Date?”
“Exactly.”
Google never fails. The chart shall not allow it.