__/ [Skeets] on Monday 31 October 2005 05:46 \__
> visited a friend today to set up his wireless-g network...
>
> set his router up...
>
> his sony internal wireless adapter (lan-express 802.11g?) didn't pick
> up the ssid.
>
> my laptop picked it up right away...
>
> the sony said the wireless adapter was working PERFECTLY...
>
> i piddled around with settings for hours...
>
> nothing.
>
> googled... found a thread where several people reported the same
> problem - one guy solved it by buying a long cable! -lol-
>
> i deleted the hardware in device manager and let winxp pick it up on a
> reboot...
>
> nothing...
>
> i eventually gave up...
>
> i'm not sure this is a windows problem (his laptop used to pick up a
> wireless network... so it can work), but it sure doesn't help when the
> OS says something is just fine and dandy when it isn't.
>
> it reminds me of the time i went for a windows update and it wouldn't
> let me download the updates and wouldn't tell me why...
>
> nothing.
...It's that wrong assumption that if no error is spewed out, all is "fine
and dandy", to use your exact phrasing. The user is never happy to hear a
bell or see an unexpected message popping up, so why ever bring it up?
Keep it 'behind the scenes'. Leave the user in the dark and let him/her to
assume he/she is the cause for the problem, i.e. ignorance. It serves the
reputation of the O/S vendor.
This is one of the things that bothered me a lot when I occasionally used
Windows for backups on a friend's computer (volume swap). At least 3 times
in my life I spent ~2-hour periods trying to connect two Windows machines
via a crossover cable. Sounds trivial, right? Connect the cables, go to
Network Neighbourhood and identify the machines...
Well, Windows is erratic and not sufficiently verbose. I suppose it had
something to do with anomaly in Windows versions, which in principle must
not exist as there should be known protocols for communication defined. In
all 3 occasions, one computer could eventually identify the other, but the
reason for 'success' was unknown. Point of contact would appear and disap-
pear for no obvious reasons. Can one debug? Hell no. The O/S is not only
quiet, but it will also refuse to say what is happening underneath. Expen-
diture of 6 hours was enough for me to recoil in disgust. This was one
among many reasons[1] why my life had to be 100% Microsoft-free. I needed
something reliable and predictable. Not a Russian roulette.
Roy
[1] Other reasons include limit on file path length = 256 bytes; Failed
booting on occasions (fragility); Poor remote access capabilities; Long
troubleshooting times like the OP pointed out (in the same amount of time,
one could write his/her own program for the task).
--
Roy S. Schestowitz | Useless fact: ~70% of organisms are bacteria
http://Schestowitz.com | SuSE Linux | PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
8:30am up 66 days 14:19, 4 users, load average: 0.40, 0.45, 0.54
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