Qa'pla!
Truly, you brought honor to your house on that day.
118 publicly visible posts • joined 16 May 2007
Had something similar happen to me. On a trip, laptop wouldn't boot. I wound up stopping at a hardware store to get a #0 Phillips, opened up the drive bay (thus the need for the #0), reseated the drive and everything was copacetic. Apparently, the drive had some somehow worked its way loose.
So late '80s. We had written some user level test software using the COM port to talk to the devices being tested.
A customer called and had an issue -- it would write data out to the COM port, but wasn't reading the incoming data for feedback. So I pack up my briefcase with every small thing I can think of (breakout box, toolkit, cables, you name it...), and hop on a plane. When I get to the customer's site, I talk with him and he shows me what he's doing.
Remember, this is the '80s, so it was a desktop computer with two COM ports. I ask him how he's using it, and he says, "COM 1 for writing, COM 2 for reading". I say, OK switch them. Now neither works.
A light bulb goes off in my head. I open up the computer and look at the DIP switch bank -- remember, this is the '80s, so that's how things were configured. Sure enough, both ports were configured as COM1. I flipped the dip switch to set up the second port as COM2, and guess what? Everything worked.
I think it took me 15 minutes total, but that's because I had to talk with the guy first. Meanwhile, now I have all day to mess around until I have to get to the airport, as we had allocated all day if necessary, and I was done by 9:30AM.
I had almost the exact same experience.
My company provided hardware and software to a certain green suited US government agency. The hardware was custom, the software was both for the custom hardware, and test software running on a PC.
We got a call. The test software wasn't working -- it would drive the hardware properly, but it would not receive the test results. This was over an RS-232 link.
So, I get to throw every single piece of serial port diagnostic hardware I can think of (short of a full-bore protocol analyzer), and get on a plane. I get to the site, and examine the customer's hardware -- both ours and his PC. The guy had a PC with two serial ports configured by DIP switches. Both ports were configured as COM1:. Flip a single switch to configure the second port as COM2: and Bob's your uncle.
So my company paid for a round trip flight, and per diem, for me to flip a single DIP switch.
I once flew 250 miles (each way) to flip a single DIP switch.
We had written some test driver software that used a serial port for communications with the system under test. The software was successfully sending test command to the target system, but would not read the responses.
So I loaded up my briefcase with null modems, a breakout box, screwdrivers, and any other RS-232 diagnostic equipment I could think of, and hopped on a plane. Got to the customer's site, saw what was happening, and started to check configuration.
This was back in the days when serial ports were configured by DIP switches, and the computer had two serial ports... BOTH configured as COM1. Once I flipped the switch to set one of them to COM2, the software magically started working again.
It worked for me with American Express, twice.
Both times were cock-ups with their travel services. The agent claimed they could not help me. The customer service people claimed they couldn't help me.
I sent a snail mail letter to the CEO, and -- wonder of wonders -- suddenly my problem was solved.
Mine wasn't a phone call... mine was an airplane flight. OK, a 60 minute flight, but SOMEONE still had to pay for it.
A customer called to say that our software wasn't working (surprise!) with their serial port. I lived in Los Angeles, the customer was in Monterey, California. I loaded up my briefcase with everything I could think of, hopped on a plane, and was at the customer's site by 9AM. Took one look at the computer, flipped a single DIP switch (remember those?).
The computer had been configured so that BOTH serial ports were COM1. I changed it so that one was COM1 and the other was COM2. Meanwhile, my return flight wasn't until 3PM...
Oh well.
"she has signed a document promising not to disclose a word of what was contained in the documents she stole for the rest of her life, or face the rest of it behind bars"
Of course, she signed such a document when she started working with classified data. I'm not sure how much the Court should trust her to follow this NDA....
"Ahem, Linus' mother tongue is, in fact, Swedish. His family come from the roughly 5% minority in Finland who are Swedish speakers. But your point stands: Swedish has non-ASCII characters too."
I believe that that you have fallen into the sar-chasm.
I would definitely prefer the 98 style. Even better would be if the buttons made a nice "thunk" sound when pushed...
Seriously, when I took my user interface class, one of the key elements was easily discoverable (what are the elements that do things), feedback (Yes! YOU PUSHED THE BUTTON), etc... TIFKAM GUIs have completely lost those elements.
My first network was named after Greek heroes. We got in a MicroVAX that the original admin named Ulysses. So we later added Ajax (a 486/33, no bloody DX or SX) , and a couple of others with names I can't remember. When we got a Pentium II/200 box, I named it "Helen" because Helen of Troy was "fast".
We were over at a friend's house for dinner.... Their (Windows Me!) computer was acting up and they asked if I could have a look at it. The obvious happened. My (late) wife had a lovely dinner with friends, while I was stuck at the computer for THREE HOURS. That was the day I swore, "Never again".
Now when I'm asked what I do for a living, I say, "I'm a software developer -- and no, I won't fix your computer."
The only person I perform free IT work for now is my girlfriend.
Been there, done that, as the underling.
The situation was procedural, thank heavens, not anything to do with a major foul-up. We needed some software (InstallShield -- this was around 1992 or 1993), and we needed it YESTERDAY. Going through normal channels would have taken about two weeks, so my manager authorized me to use petty cash to pay for it. So I did, as did two co-workers in similar situations.
Unbeknownst to us, a new VP had decided to make his mark by reducing the use of petty cash -- I'm sure you can see where this is going. The VP already had our names, as they were on the vouchers. The manager did his best to shield us from whatever consequences this tin-pot dictator VP was going to rain down upon us. He pointed out that what we had done was under his express orders and approval.
I think we still got some flak, but nowhere near as much as VP wanted, And he wound up getting some of the flak, too.
I was very lucky, this was the first manager I ever had. I wound up working for the gentleman for 17 years.
Thanks, Dwight.