Bill Gates, what the FUCK were you thinking?

The BBQ Pit
41

No, but a company has the right to assume that its users will not have a pile of festering smegma where their brain should be.

You’re right. Such knowledge is common to people starting around the age of 3. You, my small-minded friend, clearly need to take the short bus to computer class.

And once again, ladies and gentlemen, The Ryan’s legendary ability to split hairs has resurfaced once again!

Hey, you exhalation of idiocy incarnate, YOUR ineptitude is what cause the results of your ineptitude. ERGO, blaming someone else for the RESULTS of your ineptitude is not significantly different from blaming someone else for your ineptitude in the first place.

Translation: You are an idiot of the highest order. Turn off your computer, unplug it, and send it back to wherever you got it, and go pound your head against the wall until your body ceases functioning for all eternity. Do humanity a favor.

42

Bwaahahahaahaa. This is about the funniest thing I have read in a while.

Let me get this right The Ryan, since you can’t type and do not know keyboard shortcuts it IS NOT YOUR FAULT that you do not know how to type or use a keyboard on a computer? Let me rephrase that, you are claiming that your ignorance is someone else’s fault.

That is about the stupidest thing I have ever heard.

Your “problems” occur because you are either too lazy or too stupid to read the manual. Let me put your arguement in a different light.

Well I didn’t know that the long pedal on the right made the car go forward. No one told me that. It’s not my fault that the car shot forward and hit another car. I never learned how to drive a car and therefore the car should always do what I want it to do even if I hit the wrong pedal.

Man, you are too funny. Actually, you are a fucktard.

Slee

43

I don’t see how you can possibly attribute this to a lack of a brain, rather than simply lack of knowledge.

:rolleyes: most three-year-olds don’t even know how to read. And yet they know not only how to type, but the minutae of computers?

No, it is the macro which caused the results. It was the proximate cause.

sleestak:
Are you seriously trying to claim that this is as basic to the computer as a gas pedal is to a car? A better analogy is that there is a place on the armrest which opens a valve that lets all the fuel out. If you realize what happened quickly enough, you can close the valve before any of the fuel gets out. But when this happens. there is no indication of what the cause is, just an indicator light informing you that for some unspecified reason, the valve is open, and if you don’t do exactly the right thing, the fuel will pour out of the car. Furthermore, the portion of the armrest that does this is not clearly labeled as to what it does, or even that it does anything at all. It is simply a portion which looks slightly different from the rest of the armrest. And if anyone complains about getting stuck with no fuel, people say things like “Wow! You’re incredibly clumsy for hitting that part of the armrest” and “Wow! You’re quite an idiot for not knowing that pressing this other part of the armrest fixes the problem!”

You people who are saying I know nothing about computers are either engaging in ridiculous hyperbole, or are idiots. I may not know as much as you, but the fact is that I know much more than than the minimum “computer literacy” level, and probably more than the average American. And if I can find this frustrating, imagine what someone who is just beginning to use a computer would feel. The fact of the matter is that while people who are intimately familiar with computers consider macros to be a basic part of their knowledge, this is not something that the average American needs to know in their daily life. Your making fun of me for not being familiar with them is like a car enthusiast making fun of you for not knowing about some obscure part.

And in one more, probably overly optimistic, attempt for understanding, I’m currently trying to switch completely over to touch-typing. This is causing a combination of high speed typing and high incidence of errors that probably is a big part of the recemt upsurge in the frequency of this problem. But let me guess. Touch-typing is something that every four-year-old knows how to do, and it is pathetic that a grown man would actually look at his keyboard, right?

44

Actually there are things we can blame software people for:

Not providing an undo (apparently)
Not providing a decent help that tells you what the shortcuts are

45

I love keyboard shortcuts. I use them for everything. I am an intensive user of Excel, yet sometimes I get through virtually a whole day without touching the mouse once Excel is up and running. There is almost nothing in Excel that I don’t know how do to without keyboard shortcuts and members of the public frequently pay to come to our office to gasp as I display my l33t keyboard shortcut skills, pages whizzing past before they can even read them.

Alright, maybe that last bit isn’t true.

Oh - and since long time, I don’t particularly like The Ryan, nor his style of debate.

But even I think that he had a point here.

Who amongst us can say that keyboard shortcuts have never inadvertantly caused us a problem? And some of those shortcuts are undoubtedly a bit more stupid in design than others. And some of the stupid design ones have way more consequence than others.

Here’s a spectacular example: I always navigate through file menus using the keyboard. Backspace to go up a directory, enter to go into a directory, for example.

Once instead of hitting backspace, I hit they key virtually next door: delete. And because I was already in my mind going to the next directory, which began with a “y”, I hit “y”.

For some mind-numbingly stupid reason, pressing the key next door to the one that goes up a directory deletes that directory. And of course, you just need to press “y” to confirm.

Did I mention that I was currently in the root directory for my whole office? Oh yes - I was in the root directory for my whole office. We had to revert to backup and everybody lost everything that they had been working on that day. In terms of consequence, I think that beats any poxy “loss of post”.

All because backspace is next to delete and backspace is the “up one directory” key whilst delete is the “kill this forever” key.

So come on folks - recognise the fact that there are some serious design issues in these shortcuts even as you also recognise how bloody useful they can be. Or else the god of irony will make sure that YOU are the next victim…

pan

46

You ever heard of UNDO ?

:smack:

47

You ever heard of READING THE THREAD?

:smack:

Or did you think that nobody would have made that point in the first 43 replies? It’s a pretty subtle one, after all.

pan

48

The Whinin,

You are grasping at straw to prove that you’re right. Well, you’re wrong. Stop grasping, admint you fucked up, and go buy an entry-level computer book that will explain things like Alt-Backspace and Ctrl-A -C -X Etc.

Kabbes…people who can’t be trusted to type shouldn’t be fucking around in explorer windows. Your administrator priviledges should be stripped.

Sam

49

:eek:

…this thread had 1666 views just before I clicked on it…

50

I could see the point if the keyboard shortcuts varied all over the place from program to program, or (worse yet) changed in the same program from version to version. In some cases, in fact, the damn things do exactly that (I’ve cursed quite a bit since version 6 of FileMaker came out and now Command-Shift-G is no longer “group” but “Find Next” and Command-Shift-H is no longer “ungroup” but some other godforsaken command).

But Cmd-A has been Select All since the primordial bovines made their way to the domicile, and typing while text is currently selected causes the selected text to disappear has been the rule even longer (the very first version of MacWrite under Mac System 1, circa 1984, had that feature, and every GUI word processor since then, as far as I know, along with every database, spreadsheet, page layout program, etc etc etc.) It’s how it’s done.

So sorry, but I have to agree. Hitting Cmd-A (or Ctrl-A) and then typing something and being surprised when that which you had written before is suddenly history is like hitting the Caps Lock key and then complaining when EVERYTHING SUBSEQUENTLY COMES OUT LOOKING LIKE THIS.

And if Undo doesn’t work in your browser, get another browser. Or, more likely, get into the habit of hitting the undo the moment

::goes Cmd A::

::types “you notice”. Entire post now consists of “you notice”::

::hits Cmd-Z::

you notice that you did something like that, rather than doing something ELSE in a moment of freakout.

51

FYI, in IE6, if you select control-A in a web form, and then type over it accidently (by hitting “t” in this case, or tying a large bit of text), you can still get that text back by using undo.

52

But it’s even easier than getting a new frigging browser!

Alt-Backspace will restore your text in nearly ANY application in windows. If I hit Ctrl-A right now like so, it will select all text in the box. If I then hit delete, backspace, ctrl-X or even space, it will remove all text. If I DON’T freak out like some stupid caveman sitting in front of a computer terminal, and simply hit Alt-backspace, :poof: it’s all back where it belongs and all is right in the world.

It’s been this way for many years, in every version of windows since at least Win95(probably the same in 3.1). It works across all versions of IE, and in all Microsoft-branded word processing programs.

Sam

53

AHunter: are you saying that you selected the entire post, typed “you notice”, and then hit cmd-z, and the entire post was restored? I take it you are using a Mac? I’m using a PC (just in case you didn’t figure that out). I tried copying your post, selected it all, and then typed “you notice”. Then I tried “alt-backspace”. Nope. Didn’t work. Instead of undoing the deletion, it undos the letter “e”. Then I started over again, this time with “cntrl-z”. “Alt-z” doesn’t work either.

So I guess what you guys are saying is that if I accidently delete my post, and I notice before I type anything else, I can fix it. Otherwise, I’m screwed. So suppose I try to type “Another post got deleted”. But instead of shift-a n o, I type alt-a n o. My post is gone. Is there anyway to get it back? If not, will you people admit you’re wrong? Okay, that’s a stupid question. Why would you admit you’re wrong?

I don’t hunt and peck. I type different letters with different fingers. That means that I often type several of them nearly simultaneously. It’s not a question of deleting my post and “panicking”, thereby losing my opportunity to restore it. Often, by the time I actually see that the post is gone, I’ve typed several more letters, and “undo” just undos the typing of the previous character.

54

Dammit, I undid my WHOLE fucking post trying to make sure I was right.

Looke, type anything, goddamned ANYTHING. Select it using ctrl-a or the mouse. Then either delete it, or type through it, or whatever. ALT-BACKSPACE will save your ass in a blow-by-blow un-doing.

While there is a good un-do feature in Alt-backspace I now Curse Bill Gates in all of his money-grubbing power strokes for not having a re-do function!

Anywho, stop blaming Bill. You’ve now been taught a primo lesson.

Sam

55

Because you have a bit of a reputation, The Ryan. Your reputation speaks for itself.

Hell, I considered you a mindless numbskull long before you displayed your typing ineptitude. This thread is just gravy, baby.

Minutiae? Knowing that pressing a button will cause that symbol to appear on the screen is imparted on a child after five minutes of learning how to use a computer. Hell, I knew it before my fourth birthday.

So, how much more wriggling can The Ryan do to get away from the simple reality of his idiocy? Let’s start the pool!

The macro is not sentient. It cannot do anything of its own volition. It cannot randomly decide to activate itself. Or are you claiming that you were outsmarted by a few lines of code?

Next time, you puddle of Ignorance, I suggest you read the manual that came with your operating system. Unless… you’re not using a pirated copy of Windows, are you? That would be a big no-no, child.

56

gawd - alt-backspace also restores files on a server, does it?

Why can’t you just admit that sometimes people accidentally press the wrong key? It’s those very people who do type so first - I, for example, can do close on 100 wpm - who are most likely to make these mistakes too.

Another file deletion episode, though this was just one file: instead of pressing backspace, I pressed “delete” and “return” simultaneously. Because some stupid imbecile decided that the confirmation menu would default to “yes”, this automatically deleted (permanently) the file.

That’s two mistakes that I’ve made that have resulted in deleting files. Two in five frickin’ years when, as a consultant, I’m in and out of files all day every day is pretty fucking good as an error rate. But the small error leads to an out-of-proportion response with no ability to “undo”, because it is a permanent deletion.

It’s those people who don’t actually have to be constantly loading and working with files, but are just responsible for maintaining them, that think these things are soooo impossible. Try doing my job and never ever pressing the wrong keystrokes.

And, my sanctimonious friend, I bet I know more keyboard shortcuts than you do. So don’t start pantronising me with ctrl-z and alt-backspace.

pan

57

Seriously, don’t try to defend yourself, pan. You fat-finger when working around files. 2 times in five frickin’ years, or 2 times in a decade, it’s still a mess.

And please don’t imply that you think I was telling you that TEXT shortcuts like Alt-Backspace were intended for you. You’re so far from being the focus of this thread that your feelings need not be hurt. Nobody was “pantronising” you, hell, nobody was even paying attention to you.

Sam

58

You have to admit though, “pantronising” is a fantastic word.

But I just want to get this on record - you think that 2 fat-fingerings in ten years is worthy of contempt? Bearing in mind that you will be spending 8 to 12 hours a day every day, 5 or 6 days a week working with these files.

Suppose that is 100 file manipulations a day, 5 days a week, 50 weeks per year for 10 years. That makes 250,000 file manipulations. 2 in 250,000 is an error rate of 0.0008%. I believe that’s not even make six sigma. But you think that it unacceptable. Right.

pan

59

Tell a lie - it’s only about 4 and a half sigmas. So that’s alright then :rolleyes:

pan

60

Forth? You know what you’re doing? You never have problems? Either that’s an “I fucked up on the keyboard, and don’t know how to correct it”, or “I’m an idiot, and don’t know how to spell fourth”. Learn to edit or learn to spell - pick one, and fix it before you criticize other people. Don’t be too quick to use that CTRL-IDIOT key.

Though, I must compliment you on your use of the word “fucktard” in your most recent post. :slight_smile: