Re: OT: my new PC rocks!!

From: Beth (BethStone21_at_hotmail.NOSPICEDHAM.com)
Date: 01/03/04 

Date: Sat, 3 Jan 2004 03:25:51 -0000

Herbert Kleebauer wrote:
> Beth wrote:
> > Ed Beroset wrote:
> > > If you can't be bothered to read the documentation *before*
> > > installation,
> >
> > Well, there's wrong presumption #1: I always read documentation
and
>
> > It does happen sometimes but it's a _rare_ occasion where I march
on
> > in without first reading the supplied documentation...I _always_
> > "RTFM"...I'm a woman and don't find asking someone for directions
or
> > reading a manual for information to be in any way some "evil
affront
> > to my ego and pride"...oh, I know examples of plenty of men who
think
> > like that (one reason why I'm almost "religious" in reading
> > documentation before proceeding; My little brother bought himself
one
> > of those fancy hi-fi systems - costing quite a bit of money - and
was
> > so impatient and eager, he switched it on...oh dear, no wonder it
> > didn't work, he'd forgot to put the speakers in...right, plug them
> > in...oh, it still isn't working...so, he comes to tell me what's
wrong
> > and can I help...of course, I go straight to the "installation"
> > instructions as the very first thing I do...and there, on page 2,
in
> > BIG red letters: "DO NOT POWER THE SYSTEM UP WITHOUT THE SPEAKERS
> > CONNECTED, AS THIS MAY CAUSE PERMANENT DAMAGE"...granted, that's a
>
> Must have been a 40 year old amplifier which used valves instead
> of transistors (or one of this hi-fi toys for people which have to
> much money).

I think it was one of those "hi-fi toys", to be honest, as he spent
quite a bit on it...

> > pretty dumb design...but due to nothing more than a minute's
> > impatience at most, my little brother now had to pack it all back
up,
> > send it back with a grovelling "please can you send another one"
and
> > then, weeks later, they did send him a replacement...and he's
actually
> > _very lucky_ there because, technically, as he caused the damage
then
> > they weren't really obligated to replace it at all...I think the
> > company also thought "that's an incredibly dumb design" and felt
pity
> > or they had so many complaints about this bizarre "design
decision"
> > that it was policy to replace them all,lest get a bad name for
> > shipping out such dumb equipment and refusing to replace
it...anyway,
> > I know from this _exactly_ what it can cost not to _read first_
before
> > proceeding...my brother certainly lost weeks of his time for a
minute
> > or so's impatience and it was quite possible that they could have
> > refused the replacement and his impatience could easily have cost
him
> > over a grand (that's £1,000) of his money too if they'd
refused...I
> > remember this incident well because, understandably, my brother
had
> > been quite upset by the whole thing...but, then again, he did
bring it
> > on himself by not reading the manual first - and I'd advise that,
if
> > you read nothing else, always at least glance at the first few
pages
> > where they have the BIG RED LETTER warnings about not doing
> > such-and-such - and, well, I couldn't do anything about it...he'd
> > broken it before I'd even seen the thing for the first time
> > ;)...indeed, we are from Venus on this topic, whereas men are from
> > Mars...
>
> Seems not to be a man-woman but family problem, who was first,
> you or your brother?

Me...

> ] From: "Beth" <BethStone21@hotmail.NOSPICEDHAM.com>
> ] Date: Sun, 28 Sep 2003 23:20:02 +0100
> ]
> ] Remember, though, sometimes shortcuts are actually a bad
idea...for
> ] instance, one shortcut is not to read the manual of some gadget
you
> ] bought and then plug it in straight away to find it doesn't
work...and
> ] then you look at the manual which says "do NOT power up until
you've
> ] removed the transport clamps or you'll ruin the product"...Oh!
> ] Oops...and then you have to phone up the company, begging for a
> ] replacement and pretending you did read and follow the
instructions so
> ] that they don't use that against you for not giving you a
> ] replacement...and, yup, that's a _real-life_ story of how I
buggered
> ] up a new CD player by not reading the manual...I read all manuals
> ] before installing a single thing these days, to avoid a repeat
> ] performance (after all, it took ages to get delivered and then I
broke
> ] it straight away and had to wait ages all over again for the
> ] replacement to be delivered...a classic example of "more haste,
less
> ] speed" for you ;)...

Ah...to explain, it _was_ my brother who messed it up, in actual
fact...but I "took the blame" in this rendition of the story because I
generally try not to give out information about other people to a
public forum like this without their permission...for example, I've
never given out names of family or friends and sometimes even use the
pronoun "they" to even keep gender out of it...I'd forgotten that I'd
mentioned the story before on here and had done the whole "change it
so it was me rather than my brother, so that I don't have to mention
him"...and, this time, I decided in the opposite direction...I
probably shouldn't have, mind you, as I've now made him look a bit
stupid in public, which is the sort of thing that I was avoiding
before by "taking the blame" for doing the stupid thing...but, well,
I've done it now and can't take it back...I wasn't thinking - as I was
in that earlier post - about my usual principle of NOT "bad mouthing"
someone in their absence on what is, after all, a world-wide medium
that's archived for years...well, Hopefully, it'll never make any
difference and none of you ever meet my brother and then start saying
something like "oh, yeah...you're the one who did that stupid thing
with the hi-fi...your sister went and told the whole world about how
stupid you were!" (it's the thought of that - which I'm sure you'll
appreciate isn't really a nice thing - that means I usually do
"protect the innocent" by not naming names or simply "taking the
blame" in telling the story :)...I should really have done the same
thing this time as well but, well, I simply forgot and messed up
there...

This isn't one of those "I have a friend who has a problem..." things
when I'm really asking for myself...but actually the reverse of
pretending that I had the problem so that the person who really did
have the problem is "protected" from everyone and their third cousin
knowing about it...except that, yup, I messed up by forgetting the
"protection" thing the second time I mentioned the story...oops! Ummm,
if one day any of you actually do meet my brother, pretend you never
heard anything about any hi-fi, right? ;)

> > I'm not the greatest expert in these things ("software" is my
forte :)
> > but I know enough about the PC architecture to connect up IDE
drives
> > and slot in new cards and so forth...I can't see that anything is
> > wrong here...and, in a sense, it can't really be wrong because the
>
> Why not first install Windows to prove that the hardware is ok?

I did; Windows installed okay...though there were "issues" with having
more than one hard drive...which is what made me suspect the "jumper
settings" because I had something similar before - on a different
machine - when the jumper settings weren't right and it must have been
getting confused or something between drivers...well, to be honest, I
don't what exactly was happening but the disks were getting more and
more corrupt all the time until the jumper settings were put
back...because of this happening before, that's what I presumed was
happening with Windows this time too...but, yeah, good
point...becuase, now, I've actually checked those jumper settings and
I now know they are correct...so, it couldn't have been that...in
which case, though Windows installed okay, there _is_ something quirky
about the hard drives somewhere...no, thanks for that suggestion, it's
given me some ideas about some more "experiments" I should try out by
trying to install Windows again...

> > And regards "I think it's great to make it more useable" then
that's
> > actually why I need Linux installed to make a small - but
Hopefully
> > useful - contribution in doing exactly that...note, Randy's the
one
> > who's actually shown interest in my "cross-GUI library"
ideas...but it
>
> If the purpose is to support HLA, I really hope you will never
succeed
> to install Linux.

Perhaps, indeed, maybe some "higher power" agrees with you and that's
why I'm getting such problems installing it when there appears to be
nothing at all obvious that could be wrong ;)

Clearly, though, I do disagree with your opinion here myself but
respect your right to have it, anyway...I honestly believe HLA is a
"good thing" (or, at least, certainly "NOT a bad thing" :) but, who
knows, future events may eventually demonstrate that it was me who got
the wrong end of the stick all this time and I perhaps should have
listened to you...I don't think that'll turn out to be the case, mind
you...but, trying to be objective about things, it is only a
"suspicion" that I'm right...none of us know what the future may
actually finally bring...but if the odds are good, I'll put money down
on it, so to speak ;)

Beth :)