I'm beginning to feel like I want to take an axe to every computer
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Nothing works like you would expect. For example. My latest nightmare. We have this kiosk that plays DVD's, and DVD's can be bad, sometimes. As a result, the DirectX stuff hangs, or throws exceptions, or simply barfs and dies and never comes back. So, I write a separate app to deal with the DirectX DVD playing stuff, and the main app watches it. For things like, does it every return from a call querying position? Does it return if I try to play? Did an error get generated? And one of things the controlling app can do is kill the DVD app and restart it. So I've got this function kills the offending process and restarts it. Except that sometimes, after launching a NEW process (immediately after killing the old one, and WAITING FOR HasExited to be true), the new process dies instantly as well (HasExited is true). I SO HATE PROGRAMMING! I SO HATE THESE P.O.S OPERATING SYSTEMS. I SO HATE THESE G.D.M.F. P.O.S. THIRD PARTY CRAP SOFTWARE. Why, when I kill the process, and it says the process has exited, does starting a new process fail? Sometimes? WTF do I do? Put in an arbitrary wait? Folks, I've just about had it. I really have. I don't know if it's C#, or .NET, or XP, or DirectX, or something I might be doing. But the point is, all this inconsistent, unreliable, garbage that we're using, well...I'm about a straw away from just saying F.I.A and taking a long walk into the woods and never coming back. After I axe every piece of computer hardware in my office. And Anders wonders why I'm in a bad mood. X| Marc
People are just notoriously impossible. --DavidCrow
There's NO excuse for not commenting your code. -- John Simmons / outlaw programmer
People who say that they will refactor their code later to make it "good" don't understand refactoring, nor the art and craft of programming. -- Josh Smith -
Nothing works like you would expect. For example. My latest nightmare. We have this kiosk that plays DVD's, and DVD's can be bad, sometimes. As a result, the DirectX stuff hangs, or throws exceptions, or simply barfs and dies and never comes back. So, I write a separate app to deal with the DirectX DVD playing stuff, and the main app watches it. For things like, does it every return from a call querying position? Does it return if I try to play? Did an error get generated? And one of things the controlling app can do is kill the DVD app and restart it. So I've got this function kills the offending process and restarts it. Except that sometimes, after launching a NEW process (immediately after killing the old one, and WAITING FOR HasExited to be true), the new process dies instantly as well (HasExited is true). I SO HATE PROGRAMMING! I SO HATE THESE P.O.S OPERATING SYSTEMS. I SO HATE THESE G.D.M.F. P.O.S. THIRD PARTY CRAP SOFTWARE. Why, when I kill the process, and it says the process has exited, does starting a new process fail? Sometimes? WTF do I do? Put in an arbitrary wait? Folks, I've just about had it. I really have. I don't know if it's C#, or .NET, or XP, or DirectX, or something I might be doing. But the point is, all this inconsistent, unreliable, garbage that we're using, well...I'm about a straw away from just saying F.I.A and taking a long walk into the woods and never coming back. After I axe every piece of computer hardware in my office. And Anders wonders why I'm in a bad mood. X| Marc
People are just notoriously impossible. --DavidCrow
There's NO excuse for not commenting your code. -- John Simmons / outlaw programmer
People who say that they will refactor their code later to make it "good" don't understand refactoring, nor the art and craft of programming. -- Josh SmithYou might enjoy this: http://www.misscellania.com/miss-cellania/2006/8/23/computer-trap-shoot.html[^] :laugh:
"Quality Software since 1983!"
http://www.smoothjazzy.com/ - see the "Programming" section for freeware tools and articles. -
You might enjoy this: http://www.misscellania.com/miss-cellania/2006/8/23/computer-trap-shoot.html[^] :laugh:
"Quality Software since 1983!"
http://www.smoothjazzy.com/ - see the "Programming" section for freeware tools and articles. -
Nothing works like you would expect. For example. My latest nightmare. We have this kiosk that plays DVD's, and DVD's can be bad, sometimes. As a result, the DirectX stuff hangs, or throws exceptions, or simply barfs and dies and never comes back. So, I write a separate app to deal with the DirectX DVD playing stuff, and the main app watches it. For things like, does it every return from a call querying position? Does it return if I try to play? Did an error get generated? And one of things the controlling app can do is kill the DVD app and restart it. So I've got this function kills the offending process and restarts it. Except that sometimes, after launching a NEW process (immediately after killing the old one, and WAITING FOR HasExited to be true), the new process dies instantly as well (HasExited is true). I SO HATE PROGRAMMING! I SO HATE THESE P.O.S OPERATING SYSTEMS. I SO HATE THESE G.D.M.F. P.O.S. THIRD PARTY CRAP SOFTWARE. Why, when I kill the process, and it says the process has exited, does starting a new process fail? Sometimes? WTF do I do? Put in an arbitrary wait? Folks, I've just about had it. I really have. I don't know if it's C#, or .NET, or XP, or DirectX, or something I might be doing. But the point is, all this inconsistent, unreliable, garbage that we're using, well...I'm about a straw away from just saying F.I.A and taking a long walk into the woods and never coming back. After I axe every piece of computer hardware in my office. And Anders wonders why I'm in a bad mood. X| Marc
People are just notoriously impossible. --DavidCrow
There's NO excuse for not commenting your code. -- John Simmons / outlaw programmer
People who say that they will refactor their code later to make it "good" don't understand refactoring, nor the art and craft of programming. -- Josh SmithEver since my two and a half year old son started playing DVDs on my laptop a year ago, he's been forcing them in on his own and getting them scratched. After a while, some of them started locking up the OS and freezing. Pushing the eject button does not do squat while it's choking on it. My only option is to click on stop or bring up Ctrl+Alt_Delete to kill the damn thing. Since the eject button is being ignored, stopping or killing the software isn't always an option. I've learned to just press the off button and waiting ten seconds. Our DVD player is in the basement and he sits with us upstairs to watch Nemo and Charlotte's Web. Although scratched DVDs are our fault, I would like the OS to be able to handle them more gracefully.
"I know which side I want to win regardless of how many wrongs they have to commit to achieve it." - Stan Shannon Web - Blog - RSS - Math - LinkedIn - BM
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Nothing works like you would expect. For example. My latest nightmare. We have this kiosk that plays DVD's, and DVD's can be bad, sometimes. As a result, the DirectX stuff hangs, or throws exceptions, or simply barfs and dies and never comes back. So, I write a separate app to deal with the DirectX DVD playing stuff, and the main app watches it. For things like, does it every return from a call querying position? Does it return if I try to play? Did an error get generated? And one of things the controlling app can do is kill the DVD app and restart it. So I've got this function kills the offending process and restarts it. Except that sometimes, after launching a NEW process (immediately after killing the old one, and WAITING FOR HasExited to be true), the new process dies instantly as well (HasExited is true). I SO HATE PROGRAMMING! I SO HATE THESE P.O.S OPERATING SYSTEMS. I SO HATE THESE G.D.M.F. P.O.S. THIRD PARTY CRAP SOFTWARE. Why, when I kill the process, and it says the process has exited, does starting a new process fail? Sometimes? WTF do I do? Put in an arbitrary wait? Folks, I've just about had it. I really have. I don't know if it's C#, or .NET, or XP, or DirectX, or something I might be doing. But the point is, all this inconsistent, unreliable, garbage that we're using, well...I'm about a straw away from just saying F.I.A and taking a long walk into the woods and never coming back. After I axe every piece of computer hardware in my office. And Anders wonders why I'm in a bad mood. X| Marc
People are just notoriously impossible. --DavidCrow
There's NO excuse for not commenting your code. -- John Simmons / outlaw programmer
People who say that they will refactor their code later to make it "good" don't understand refactoring, nor the art and craft of programming. -- Josh SmithHe he... you should try to use the SAP SDK. Or interacting programmatically with Matlab. For example, Matlab saves graphs on disk by BitBlt'ing the screen (:wtf: BTW). Then you have to run in an active shell user session, and you cannot even allow the screensaver to run. All of this undocumented, obviously.
If you truly believe you need to pick a mobile phone that "says something" about your personality, don't bother. You don't have a personality. A mental illness, maybe - but not a personality. - Charlie Brooker My Blog - My Photos - ScrewTurn Wiki
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Nothing works like you would expect. For example. My latest nightmare. We have this kiosk that plays DVD's, and DVD's can be bad, sometimes. As a result, the DirectX stuff hangs, or throws exceptions, or simply barfs and dies and never comes back. So, I write a separate app to deal with the DirectX DVD playing stuff, and the main app watches it. For things like, does it every return from a call querying position? Does it return if I try to play? Did an error get generated? And one of things the controlling app can do is kill the DVD app and restart it. So I've got this function kills the offending process and restarts it. Except that sometimes, after launching a NEW process (immediately after killing the old one, and WAITING FOR HasExited to be true), the new process dies instantly as well (HasExited is true). I SO HATE PROGRAMMING! I SO HATE THESE P.O.S OPERATING SYSTEMS. I SO HATE THESE G.D.M.F. P.O.S. THIRD PARTY CRAP SOFTWARE. Why, when I kill the process, and it says the process has exited, does starting a new process fail? Sometimes? WTF do I do? Put in an arbitrary wait? Folks, I've just about had it. I really have. I don't know if it's C#, or .NET, or XP, or DirectX, or something I might be doing. But the point is, all this inconsistent, unreliable, garbage that we're using, well...I'm about a straw away from just saying F.I.A and taking a long walk into the woods and never coming back. After I axe every piece of computer hardware in my office. And Anders wonders why I'm in a bad mood. X| Marc
People are just notoriously impossible. --DavidCrow
There's NO excuse for not commenting your code. -- John Simmons / outlaw programmer
People who say that they will refactor their code later to make it "good" don't understand refactoring, nor the art and craft of programming. -- Josh SmithI always laugh at how advanced the computers are in Star Trek. We could NEVER build those kinds of systems, for the very simple reason that 99.999999999999999999999999999999% of our garbage is exactly that: garbage. Patched, hacked, fubar'd and kludged into working, but that's about the best it will EVER do.. just work. It'll never be as reliable and extensible as our imaginations tell us it should be. Oh, it COULD be, but so long as profit is our motive for creating it we'll never let ourselves design it well enough for that to be a reality. Good design is expensive; "just barely works" is cheap.
------------ Cheers, Patrick
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You might enjoy this: http://www.misscellania.com/miss-cellania/2006/8/23/computer-trap-shoot.html[^] :laugh:
"Quality Software since 1983!"
http://www.smoothjazzy.com/ - see the "Programming" section for freeware tools and articles.Very nice thing to do to the environment. :suss:
If you truly believe you need to pick a mobile phone that "says something" about your personality, don't bother. You don't have a personality. A mental illness, maybe - but not a personality. - Charlie Brooker My Blog - My Photos - ScrewTurn Wiki
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I always laugh at how advanced the computers are in Star Trek. We could NEVER build those kinds of systems, for the very simple reason that 99.999999999999999999999999999999% of our garbage is exactly that: garbage. Patched, hacked, fubar'd and kludged into working, but that's about the best it will EVER do.. just work. It'll never be as reliable and extensible as our imaginations tell us it should be. Oh, it COULD be, but so long as profit is our motive for creating it we'll never let ourselves design it well enough for that to be a reality. Good design is expensive; "just barely works" is cheap.
------------ Cheers, Patrick
In the Star Trek universe, only the Ferengi use money. ;P I need a good ear stroke.
-- Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
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Nothing works like you would expect. For example. My latest nightmare. We have this kiosk that plays DVD's, and DVD's can be bad, sometimes. As a result, the DirectX stuff hangs, or throws exceptions, or simply barfs and dies and never comes back. So, I write a separate app to deal with the DirectX DVD playing stuff, and the main app watches it. For things like, does it every return from a call querying position? Does it return if I try to play? Did an error get generated? And one of things the controlling app can do is kill the DVD app and restart it. So I've got this function kills the offending process and restarts it. Except that sometimes, after launching a NEW process (immediately after killing the old one, and WAITING FOR HasExited to be true), the new process dies instantly as well (HasExited is true). I SO HATE PROGRAMMING! I SO HATE THESE P.O.S OPERATING SYSTEMS. I SO HATE THESE G.D.M.F. P.O.S. THIRD PARTY CRAP SOFTWARE. Why, when I kill the process, and it says the process has exited, does starting a new process fail? Sometimes? WTF do I do? Put in an arbitrary wait? Folks, I've just about had it. I really have. I don't know if it's C#, or .NET, or XP, or DirectX, or something I might be doing. But the point is, all this inconsistent, unreliable, garbage that we're using, well...I'm about a straw away from just saying F.I.A and taking a long walk into the woods and never coming back. After I axe every piece of computer hardware in my office. And Anders wonders why I'm in a bad mood. X| Marc
People are just notoriously impossible. --DavidCrow
There's NO excuse for not commenting your code. -- John Simmons / outlaw programmer
People who say that they will refactor their code later to make it "good" don't understand refactoring, nor the art and craft of programming. -- Josh SmithMarc Clifton wrote:
I'm about a straw away from just saying F.I.A and taking a long walk into the woods and never coming back. After I axe every piece of computer hardware in my office.
Good idea. Except that axing part, and that never coming back part. Just take your hat on and have a nice trip to some awesome place. :cool:
"Throughout human history, we have been dependent on machines to survive. Fate, it seems, is not without a sense of irony. " - Morpheus "Real men use mspaint for writing code and notepad for designing graphics." - Anna-Jayne Metcalfe
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In the Star Trek universe, only the Ferengi use money. ;P I need a good ear stroke.
-- Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
Joergen Sigvardsson wrote:
In the Star Trek universe, only the Ferengi use money.
That's exactly my point! The Ferengi *bought* all of their technology - computers, warp drive, weapons - from the other advanced races, who had done it just cause it was worth doing. (Although I always wondered - what was the Klingons' motivation? Inventing a warp drive doesn't seem very "honor in battle"-like to me).
------------ Cheers, Patrick
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Joergen Sigvardsson wrote:
In the Star Trek universe, only the Ferengi use money.
That's exactly my point! The Ferengi *bought* all of their technology - computers, warp drive, weapons - from the other advanced races, who had done it just cause it was worth doing. (Although I always wondered - what was the Klingons' motivation? Inventing a warp drive doesn't seem very "honor in battle"-like to me).
------------ Cheers, Patrick
Warp drives are very useful if you are going to chase down your opponent (a must if you are going to slice him).
-- Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
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Warp drives are very useful if you are going to chase down your opponent (a must if you are going to slice him).
-- Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
Now you're just pulling my leg. :-D
------------ Cheers, Patrick
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Nothing works like you would expect. For example. My latest nightmare. We have this kiosk that plays DVD's, and DVD's can be bad, sometimes. As a result, the DirectX stuff hangs, or throws exceptions, or simply barfs and dies and never comes back. So, I write a separate app to deal with the DirectX DVD playing stuff, and the main app watches it. For things like, does it every return from a call querying position? Does it return if I try to play? Did an error get generated? And one of things the controlling app can do is kill the DVD app and restart it. So I've got this function kills the offending process and restarts it. Except that sometimes, after launching a NEW process (immediately after killing the old one, and WAITING FOR HasExited to be true), the new process dies instantly as well (HasExited is true). I SO HATE PROGRAMMING! I SO HATE THESE P.O.S OPERATING SYSTEMS. I SO HATE THESE G.D.M.F. P.O.S. THIRD PARTY CRAP SOFTWARE. Why, when I kill the process, and it says the process has exited, does starting a new process fail? Sometimes? WTF do I do? Put in an arbitrary wait? Folks, I've just about had it. I really have. I don't know if it's C#, or .NET, or XP, or DirectX, or something I might be doing. But the point is, all this inconsistent, unreliable, garbage that we're using, well...I'm about a straw away from just saying F.I.A and taking a long walk into the woods and never coming back. After I axe every piece of computer hardware in my office. And Anders wonders why I'm in a bad mood. X| Marc
People are just notoriously impossible. --DavidCrow
There's NO excuse for not commenting your code. -- John Simmons / outlaw programmer
People who say that they will refactor their code later to make it "good" don't understand refactoring, nor the art and craft of programming. -- Josh Smith -
Nothing works like you would expect. For example. My latest nightmare. We have this kiosk that plays DVD's, and DVD's can be bad, sometimes. As a result, the DirectX stuff hangs, or throws exceptions, or simply barfs and dies and never comes back. So, I write a separate app to deal with the DirectX DVD playing stuff, and the main app watches it. For things like, does it every return from a call querying position? Does it return if I try to play? Did an error get generated? And one of things the controlling app can do is kill the DVD app and restart it. So I've got this function kills the offending process and restarts it. Except that sometimes, after launching a NEW process (immediately after killing the old one, and WAITING FOR HasExited to be true), the new process dies instantly as well (HasExited is true). I SO HATE PROGRAMMING! I SO HATE THESE P.O.S OPERATING SYSTEMS. I SO HATE THESE G.D.M.F. P.O.S. THIRD PARTY CRAP SOFTWARE. Why, when I kill the process, and it says the process has exited, does starting a new process fail? Sometimes? WTF do I do? Put in an arbitrary wait? Folks, I've just about had it. I really have. I don't know if it's C#, or .NET, or XP, or DirectX, or something I might be doing. But the point is, all this inconsistent, unreliable, garbage that we're using, well...I'm about a straw away from just saying F.I.A and taking a long walk into the woods and never coming back. After I axe every piece of computer hardware in my office. And Anders wonders why I'm in a bad mood. X| Marc
People are just notoriously impossible. --DavidCrow
There's NO excuse for not commenting your code. -- John Simmons / outlaw programmer
People who say that they will refactor their code later to make it "good" don't understand refactoring, nor the art and craft of programming. -- Josh SmithMarc Clifton wrote:
I'm about a straw away from just saying F.I.A and taking a long walk into the woods and never coming back.
You'll come back. An hour later, while staring at a squirrel, you'll suddenly have the irresistible urge to try just one more thing... and back to the nightmare black box you'll go. ;P
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It appears that everybody is under the impression that I approve of the documentation. You probably also blame Ken Burns for supporting slavery.
--Raymond Chen on MSDN
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Joergen Sigvardsson wrote:
In the Star Trek universe, only the Ferengi use money.
That's exactly my point! The Ferengi *bought* all of their technology - computers, warp drive, weapons - from the other advanced races, who had done it just cause it was worth doing. (Although I always wondered - what was the Klingons' motivation? Inventing a warp drive doesn't seem very "honor in battle"-like to me).
------------ Cheers, Patrick
Patrick Sears wrote:
(Although I always wondered - what was the Klingons' motivation? Inventing a warp drive doesn't seem very "honor in battle"-like to me).
the motivation was the original klingon version of "Alexander wept for there were no more worlds to conquer". FTL makes it so much easier to leave a star system and conquer the galaxy with it's millions of new worlds. PS does anyone know where hte original's from? I know I've seen it before but haven't been able to place it.
-- CleaKO The sad part about this instance is that none of the users ever said anything [about the problem]. Pete O`Hanlon Doesn't that just tell you everything you need to know about users?
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Now you're just pulling my leg. :-D
------------ Cheers, Patrick
No man! If you could see the wrinkles and ridges in my forehead, you'd trust me on this one! ;)
-- Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
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Chris Maunder wrote:
I think someone needs some fresh kool-aid.
Ah, all those kool-aid drinkers are long gone. Though I was living in San Diego when the Nike-comet thing happened. I was quite surprised my then-wife didn't try ascending to Haley's. Sometimes I feel like my life has been a series of wrong choices. And I keep making them! Marc
People are just notoriously impossible. --DavidCrow
There's NO excuse for not commenting your code. -- John Simmons / outlaw programmer
People who say that they will refactor their code later to make it "good" don't understand refactoring, nor the art and craft of programming. -- Josh Smith -
Chris Maunder wrote:
I think someone needs some fresh kool-aid.
Ah, all those kool-aid drinkers are long gone. Though I was living in San Diego when the Nike-comet thing happened. I was quite surprised my then-wife didn't try ascending to Haley's. Sometimes I feel like my life has been a series of wrong choices. And I keep making them! Marc
People are just notoriously impossible. --DavidCrow
There's NO excuse for not commenting your code. -- John Simmons / outlaw programmer
People who say that they will refactor their code later to make it "good" don't understand refactoring, nor the art and craft of programming. -- Josh SmithYou mean hale-bop? That was the one the cult nuts fixated on as being a UFO.
-- CleaKO The sad part about this instance is that none of the users ever said anything [about the problem]. Pete O`Hanlon Doesn't that just tell you everything you need to know about users?
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Nothing works like you would expect. For example. My latest nightmare. We have this kiosk that plays DVD's, and DVD's can be bad, sometimes. As a result, the DirectX stuff hangs, or throws exceptions, or simply barfs and dies and never comes back. So, I write a separate app to deal with the DirectX DVD playing stuff, and the main app watches it. For things like, does it every return from a call querying position? Does it return if I try to play? Did an error get generated? And one of things the controlling app can do is kill the DVD app and restart it. So I've got this function kills the offending process and restarts it. Except that sometimes, after launching a NEW process (immediately after killing the old one, and WAITING FOR HasExited to be true), the new process dies instantly as well (HasExited is true). I SO HATE PROGRAMMING! I SO HATE THESE P.O.S OPERATING SYSTEMS. I SO HATE THESE G.D.M.F. P.O.S. THIRD PARTY CRAP SOFTWARE. Why, when I kill the process, and it says the process has exited, does starting a new process fail? Sometimes? WTF do I do? Put in an arbitrary wait? Folks, I've just about had it. I really have. I don't know if it's C#, or .NET, or XP, or DirectX, or something I might be doing. But the point is, all this inconsistent, unreliable, garbage that we're using, well...I'm about a straw away from just saying F.I.A and taking a long walk into the woods and never coming back. After I axe every piece of computer hardware in my office. And Anders wonders why I'm in a bad mood. X| Marc
People are just notoriously impossible. --DavidCrow
There's NO excuse for not commenting your code. -- John Simmons / outlaw programmer
People who say that they will refactor their code later to make it "good" don't understand refactoring, nor the art and craft of programming. -- Josh SmithInstead of trying to magically 'know' what state the DVD player is in, try using a Video Sync Sensor. A base unit will only detect if power is on or off (by detecting the presence or absence of a video sync signal), but a nicer unit will know if the output signal is 'moving' (e.g. not snow, or blue screen). Just a thought. -Ed
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Very nice thing to do to the environment. :suss:
If you truly believe you need to pick a mobile phone that "says something" about your personality, don't bother. You don't have a personality. A mental illness, maybe - but not a personality. - Charlie Brooker My Blog - My Photos - ScrewTurn Wiki
I didn't actually watch it. I'm sure everything was disposed of properly, for Kentucky anyway...
"Quality Software since 1983!"
http://www.smoothjazzy.com/ - see the "Programming" section for freeware tools and articles.