Computers Say The Darnedest Things
When we were kids, we imagined that the future held flying cars and moon bases. Technology and humanity would be in perfect sync. Our machines would anticipate our needs, leaving us to pursue only the most relevant, important work. Well, it hasn’t happened yet; we’re still very much slaves to our machines instead of the other way around. It sometimes seems we can’t go an hour without intercepting some bad news from our computers: missing drivers, no paper in the printer, an exception at memory address 32xxff00. . . . Can’t we just get our work done? Don’t go back to pen and paper just yet. We’ve got some tips to help you deal with the different kinds of errors you run into while working with your PC.An Error For Every Season
Error messages are communications from the PC to you. To create one, a programmer must anticipate an action you might take with which the system will disagree or by which the system will become confused. Depending on how well the software is designed, these messages may either be informative or so it sometimes seems deliberately obtuse. For Ben Ezzell, error messages are too often the result of lazy programming. He’s the author of “Developing Windows Error Messages,” published in 1998 by O’Reilly. Nowadays, Ezzell is the director of software development for IDComm, a California-based developer of RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification) products. He’s seen a lot of error messages in his time and has little patience for them. We asked him what kinds of error messages users run into, and he was pretty blunt about it: “There’s stupid, misleading, and erroneous,” he said. Okay, seriously: There are hardware errors, software errors, and user errors. “Most errors fit in these categories,” says Ezzell, “and while the least [common] errors are hardware errors, the problem is that most [of what the software calls] user errors should actually be software [error] messages.” If you think about your working relationship with your computer, or with any technology, you’ll get the idea pretty quickly. Ezzell uses an example with which most people are intimately familiar: “Think of the phone company. You must first dial a one before dialing a long-distance number. They already know what you’re doing, but they just don’t want to accept it.” Instead, you receive an over-the-phone “error message” that forces you to hang up and redial, this time entering the number one. The phone company already knows that you’re dialing long-distance, so they could just put you through; this is a prime example of a software error being turned into a user error. In his book, Mr. Ezzell provides advice to programmers who want to communicate problems to their users. He even has a recipe for the perfect error message. It has three “ingredients,” in the form of answers to these questions:
1. What is the problem?
2. Why is it a problem?
3. What can I do to solve the problem?
For a good example, consider a common type of user error: those relatednto printing. A good error message would inform you that your printer is out of paper, that you won’t be able to print unless you load more paper into the tray, and that you should click Print after you have loaded it. If you’re a user who often feels a victim of your computer, you can rest assured that if you see an error message that doesn’t meet these criteria, the programmer is almost certainly the one at fault, not you.
But It’s Your Problem
Unfortunately, the programmer is not usually available to take to task for a poorly written error message. So what can you do to solve it? There are more resources than ever to help you out. The first step is to read the error message. We know, we know: It seems obvious. But many users have so little faith in their ability to understand these messages that they don’t bother reading them. While the programmer may not have written a particularly useful error message, there may be just enough information to help you troubleshoot the problem, especially if it reminds you of something you just did. For example, here’s one of our favorite error messages, from Outlook Express: “Some errors occurred while processing the requested tasks.” This message may appear after attempting to log in to your email account; if you enter the information incorrectly, you might see this message. The error message itself is quite cryptic:
• How many errors are “some” errors?
• Which errors are they?
• Which tasks are we talking about?
Fortunately, the context is fairly clear the error occurs whenever you attempt to sign on, and the solution is simple enough: Just re-enter your credentials, this time correctly. In some cases, though, the context of your actions won’t give you a clue as to what to do. That’s where the Internet comes in. You can try entering the text of the message into Google’s search engine, or you can check out Smart Computing’s online error message database at tinyurl.com/yx67td.
The database allows you to either view all error messages alphabetically or search for the text of your error message in particular. The results of your search will not only yield what caused the error but may also suggest actions you can take to work around it. Some solutions also include links to articles for further information. With thousands of error messages in the SmartComputing.com database and hundreds of thousands accessible via Google, chances are good you’ll find your answer at one place or the other. But sometimes you won’t be able to find a solution, or else implementing that solution may be beyond your comfort level. Even worse, your error may be preventing you from accessing the Internet in the first place, which eliminates your best hope of tracking down and correcting such problems. (This is most common when attempting to deal with hardware driver problems or application reinstallation.) In these cases, you might consider calling in some expert assistance. That doesn’t have to mean shelling out cash: Free support exists for many people in the form of friends or family. However, if you do know a computer,expert, be sure to employ his services judiciously; after all, he can’t spend all of his time being your personal tech support line. Be prepared before calling for help: Write down your exact error message and provide a detailed account of the actions that led to the error. Also, regardless of whether you’re speaking to a friend or to a company tech support rep, be sure to have on hand information that will enable him to help you. This includes such things as your operating system (including any installed updates or service packs), the model (and in some cases, the serial number) of your computer, and a list of hardware and software you’ve added. This will help you avoid wasting your tech’s time, which makes it much more likely that you’ll receive the help you’re seeking. User forums are another free resource for technical assistance. These are online communities at which users post questions and receive help from other users. One example comes from Annoyances .org, named after the popular O’Reilly series of Annoyances books. Here you can search for posts in which people have asked about the same problem with which you’re currently dealing, or you can enter a question yourself and probably receive a useful reply.Help Is Coming
Error messages are getting better. By author Ben Ezzell’s lights, “Things have improved dramatically. I like to think I’ve had an influence, but there are other factors.” In the early days of computing, Ezzell notes, resources were so scarce that programmers had to be terse with their language, which led to cryptic or obscure error messages. This is no longer the case, however, and developers are starting to catch up. “In a way,” says Ezzell, “they’ve gone overboard, because they want to link you to the Web for more information. They assume you have a high-speed connection, and this is not [necessarily] valid.” There are also troubleshooters and step-by-step wizards built into recent versions of Microsoft Windows that will walk you through possible causes for a range of issues. So, while we will definitely not be holding our breath waiting for flying cars, we can look forward to a day when our computers will at least speak to us more clearly.
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