Living With Broken Software
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Comments posted to this topic are about the item Living With Broken Software
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Heh... Like I tell people, I don't hate computers... I hate the people that write the code and the people that don't test it properly.
And you don't even know if the code problem is in the OS of your phone or in the parking app.
--Jeff Moden
RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.
Helpful Links:
How to post code problems
How to Post Performance Problems
Create a Tally Function (fnTally) -
For me, as a deaf person that sort of thing is a source of considerable stress. IF I can find some contact details, will I have to attempt a phone call? Will I be able to hear them? What accent will I struggle to interpret? Will the person on the end of the phone understand what I am trying to say and be patient with me having to say "could you repeat that"?
This is one of the reasons I'm reluctant with online and telephone banking. I'd give the banks an A for arrogance and a word beginning with F for customer satisfaction.
Processes have to join up and balance each other. Crap app? Better have great telephone support staff.
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"Perhaps I'll even miss seeing the message when or if it gets fixed."
I like this lamentation as I've had a similar experience with a technology which after having been broken for so long began to feel "normal." I was then caught off-guard then the malady was "fixed" and suddenly THAT felt (temporarily) broken!
-Troy
- Jeff Moden wrote:
Heh... Like I tell people, I don't hate computers... I hate the people that write the code and the people that don't test it properly.
And you don't even know if the code problem is in the OS of your phone or in the parking app.
I really don't know where the issue is. Since the web errors differently (and doesn't book/confirm), I assume they are incorrectly handling the results from the charge company and throwing an error. But that's just a guess.
- David.Poole wrote:
For me, as a deaf person that sort of thing is a source of considerable stress. IF I can find some contact details, will I have to attempt a phone call? Will I be able to hear them? What accent will I struggle to interpret? Will the person on the end of the phone understand what I am trying to say and be patient with me having to say "could you repeat that"?
This is one of the reasons I'm reluctant with online and telephone banking. I'd give the banks an A for arrogance and a word beginning with F for customer satisfaction.
Processes have to join up and balance each other. Crap app? Better have great telephone support staff.
I can't imagine feeling this way. I am glad that chat is an option now, as I use that more often than trying a phone call.
- doysheaf wrote:
"Perhaps I'll even miss seeing the message when or if it gets fixed."
I like this lamentation as I've had a similar experience with a technology which after having been broken for so long began to feel "normal." I was then caught off-guard then the malady was "fixed" and suddenly THAT felt (temporarily) broken!
-Troy
Lol, we'll see if I ever see this. Lots of chances this year to test it.
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I really relate to this issue. There's a lot of software like that here. But it's like potholes in the road. People get used to doing something like swerving a little to the right, to avoid the pothole. So, yeah, you can get around it, but the pothole is still there, and it should be fixed/filled in. And the mantra of, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" runs extraordinarily strong where I work. So strong, that it's like that mobile app you wrote about, Steve. Yeah, it crashes, but it generates a desired byproduct which the user can use. So, sacrifice user experience in favor of getting some desired result to the user.
But in the article, you said that developers have more to do than they did in the past. That's an exceptionally good point, and one I hadn't considered. I know we have more apps being put on our backlogs, so going back to fix UX problems is low on the totem pole.
Kindest Regards, Rod Connect with me on LinkedIn.
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"Living with Broken Software"... Sounds like every day using PowerBI. They've been working on it for like 10 years and it's STILL broken. when I start creating a measure the "help" obscures the measure window. Great design. Round of applause for those developers. Would be nice if I could just have an option to turn that not-so-helpful help off.
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Just a couple days ago I downloaded a little trial package from NCH Software for a specific need I have to batch flip about 6000 TIFF files now and more in the future as I create them, a likely total of some 30000. Price wasn't bad, just $40. As a trial, I converted the files in one directory and all seemed well. The trial version seemed to maybe do the job, so I bought it and got the key. My current 6000 TIFF files are in 147 sub-directories on a NAS drive. The plan was to processs them to a different drive on the same NAS device with the same structure.
After a new install and applying the key, I fired up and selected the upper level directory containing the 147 sub-directories. Started the process and it created exactly 50 of the subdirectores, not the expected 147. Then the display scrolled through a listing of the 6000 file names. Unfortunately all the actual output directories are empty. No files were converted.
NCH support asked me to try a single directory again, so I chose a directory with 6 TIFF files. Now these TIFF files are at 10,000 DPI resolution, so they are sort of large at 6mb each. I just said convert the output to TIFF ( no real change ) in the original directory. On completion, the display says 6 files were converted.
When I look at the files, while they still have the TIFF extension, each file is now roughly half the original size in bytes. I can in fact open the files and see the contents, which must indicate I lost roughly half the resolution.
I'm waiting now on my refund. If it does not arrive, I'll contest the charge on my credit card. I won't pay to live with broken software.
Rick
Disaster Recovery = Backup ( Backup ( Your Backup ) ) -
I have experienced this all too often and it generally comes down to who you know, will determine if the problem ever gets priority and fixed. In fact, I most recently experienced this problem while posting my last reply a week or two ago to another of Steve's posts. And the main reason for me replying to this one is to see if it will happen again. The last time, I was tempted to take a screen shot and report it, but just didn't have the time. Fortunately, I simply tried submitting again and it worked without error. So let's try this reply.
Sure enough, I got an error:
I also had the Network trace and saw the failed request, which gave me an idea as to why it failed. What is strange is why it works the second time, when I simply just try again.
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Kevin, I have had that occur most of the time for at least the last couple years. So now we have an indication it's not just you and not just me. So, is the client our machines?
Rick
Disaster Recovery = Backup ( Backup ( Your Backup ) ) -
Ah the joys of loading js from Google/FB/etc. Sorry about that, but some things are transient network items, which is where software ought to insulate the user.
- skeleton567 wrote:
Kevin, I have had that occur most of the time for at least the last couple years. So now we have an indication it's not just you and not just me. So, is the client our machines?
Oh wow. It does happen to other people? When I said, "I also had the Network trace and saw the failed request, which gave me an idea as to why it failed", the thought I had was that it was primarily caused by me running my own DNS server and it having a list of blocked domains. So it was really my fault, in a way.
Steve Jones - SSC Editor wrote:Ah the joys of loading js from Google/FB/etc. Sorry about that, but some things are transient network items, which is where software ought to insulate the user.
Seems Steve may have an idea.
Sorry, Steve. No intent of trying to turn this this into a technical support case or anything. Was just trying to see if it would happen again and use it as an example that we can relate to. 🙂
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Just got another 'broken' piece of email. Obviousy a scam showing an invoice for over $400.00 of BitCoin from Pay Pal. Dead givaway, I hope, is that the date is '3th April, 2023'. Plus the fact that I never leave my financial info on my Pay Pal account after I use it.
Rick
Disaster Recovery = Backup ( Backup ( Your Backup ) )
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