Why are the answers to so many common tech problems so darned stupid?
There's this thing about so-called 'high' technology, or IT as we tend to call it. (As a really early aside, using the term 'high' technology always brings to mind a Tolkien-esque world of elves, High, Common and Wood. Only problem is, while some IT could be described as 'common', we don't really have 'wood' technology as yet. A wood laptop, for example, would be quite durable -- not to mention floatable -- but the weight and heat issues would be a real worry.) Anyway, before I get too far distracted from my point, the thing about high technology is that when it fails -- and, as we all know, Murphy's law says that it will when we least want it to -- the solutions to getting it back up and running are often as low-tech as possible, not to mention sometimes on the bizarre side.
The recent Easter break gave me the chance to engage in a few of my choice passions. Easter Bilbies, for one, decked out in sweet, sweet chocolate. The energy gained from said now-ingested Bilbies also gave me the impetus to once more log onto Microsoft's gaming service for its Xbox system, the aptly named Xbox Live. Only problem was, my ADSL modem refused to play the game, turning Xbox Live into Xbox Dead. Again and again it threw up IP and DNS errors at me, which was a tad confusing, as the last time I'd used it, it worked without complaint. Calls to Microsoft directed me to my ISP, who naturally directed me back to Microsoft. E-mail to the vendor of my ADSL modem seemed to vanish into the great unknown -- it's probably still out there now, buried under a pile of spam -- although I did notice many online vendors now selling my particular modem as 'not Xbox Live compatible'.
A friend of mine stepped into the void and helped me set up my system via a crossover network cable running from my PC, at which point modem and Xbox started chatting to each other as they'd done previously. Severely sore thumbs ensued, and many chocolate bilbies died, but that's beside the point. The point is, I'm somewhat baffled as to why this worked, but it worked, so I'm not going to complain too much.
This sort of thing happens all too often. I've seen particular hardware that'll only work in a specific slot of a particular motherboard, and the only answer coming out of both card and board manufacturers has been to the effect of "it didn't work in any other slot, but it did in that one, so that's what we tell customers. No, we don't know why either. Ask the other guy."
Software's even more guilty on this score. There's the stuff I've ranted about in the past, like stupidly having to disable your antivirus software before installing applications, but that's only the tip of the iceberg.
I've seen fax software that won't install if popular children's educational software is installed. I've seen releases of Windows touted as 'most compatible ever' throw up error after error when installing previously stable software onto them. I've seen applications suddenly gobble up system resources with a gusto that Pac-Man would find challenging, only to drop back down to a morsel as long as that FTP application you're concurrently using stops running. Vendor support pages are stuffed with this kind of thing, and while Googling for a solution can be interesting, it's never fun, and often frustrating when you find no search results whatsoever.
Have you hit this kind of stupid solution before, or is it just me? Talkback to me below!
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Hail Mate,
Of course we all have been going through this sort of stuff all the time. As a dinossaur in IT (I stated back in 1984 with Apple II computers) I've seen enough on DOS & MS Windows to scare the s*it out of me.
Very recently I bought the latest and greatest ADSL Modem/Router to set up an ADSL wireless connection at home. When the problems started I called the guys from the ISP who sent me to the Hardware manufacturer support person, who then obviously sent me back to the ISP person.
Two weeks later, I decided to solve the issue myself.
Took me 3 whole labourious days on my Easter vacation to find out I had to install something windows calls Routing Information Protocol most commonly reffered by Windows as RIP.
So I finally realised the esoteric inner-meaning of all this stupid stuff:
Thy suffer shalt halt when thee hast RIP over thy head.