[svlug] netscape-dynam problems...

[Javilk]

> No, _we_ do not.  Perhaps _you_ do, but you long ago passed any 
> reasonable expectation of free, expert help from strangers who
> by and large earn sizeable sums of money in the computer industry.

     (Chuckle,) Maybe we need an installation help mailing list. I got
started in computers by helping others back in 1969 when I taught
programming workshops and helped others with their efforts at programming. 
And beginning with the IMSAI in 1976, tinkering and helping others with
their own computers.  That's over two and a half decades.  Some of us
enjoy this kind of talk, others don't.  I've offered to teach workshops on
HTML and PERL.  I could also teach some of the other 28 or so programming
languages I have used, but... a lot of them are obsolete or very special
purpose.

     And yes, I too earn good money from this industry from time to time. 
I am a contract software developer, a consultant, and a webmaster. I've
been doing contract projects and consulting for over 27 years, and loved
every, (well, almost every,) minute of it.

     Oh, and in case you didn't notice, I did offer to hire someone from
the start several weeks ago, and again this week.  So far, no one has
taken that offer.

     I presume this is, in part, because we don't have any clear...  well,
more of an approach, I would say, to determining the true nature of the
problems involved.  We need something like a diagnostic flowchart or table
of things to test and the probable causes, or at least what can be ruled
out. Thus far, we have put two such tests on what should be the FAQ: the
ldconfig and xv.  And I would be more than glad to contribute something on
problem determination and isolation. I did that for IBM on a project a few
years ago.

> Everything in the prior sentence you can (usually) get away with
> on Lose95, but it'll generally bite you on any other Intel-based OS.
     ------- I like that name!
> It was an inauspicious beginning.  It suggests you should start over.

    The problem with that scenario, is that I will merely make the same
mistakes all over. As will others. One needs to know why things are not
working, or baring that, what options are reasonable so one can go through
the list trying things in some sensible manner.  Just reloading does not
help in the long run, even if sometimes it might in the short run. 
 
> OK, you say you need a diagnostics program.  The one you need is the
> one _behind your eyeballs_.  Read your hardware documentation 
> thoroughly.  All of it.  Get to know all the settings at both the
> hardware and firmware levels.

   (Laughing!)  WHAT hardware documentation???  No-name clone boards,
minimal user documents having not even chipset info, etc. Even the Canon
brand notebook does not detail which Western Digital chips are used.  How
many of us have anything more than some simple sheets of paper telling us
how to set the jumpers for various clock speeds and chip sets?

> If you're not prepared to do such things, I see no point in 
> your buying diagnostics programs.  The cranial one is almost 
> inevitably more useful.

    But when there is no sensible documentation, one tries software to
diagnose what is.  The diagnostics I wrote for HP had to report which of
many different systems it was run on.  Of course, in the HP's, we had a
clue as to what they might be... 

    So maybe we do need an installation help mailing list.  I'd even
suggest that each of us spend some number of months each year on that
list.  I've always advocated that every engineer in a company be rotated
through tech support, even if but for a few days, to see what is really
happening, who the customers are, etc.  Whereas in a corporation you can
tell the engineers that these are the people who are paying their
salaries; here, these are the people who are growing our organization and
user base. Quite simply, we need them and they need us.  And together, we
can all grow.

    (I would favor rotation as I know that I would tend to sit helping on
that list way too long!  I've done it before with other lists; one gets
burned out on a topic after a while.) 

- javilk at mall-net.com --------------------------------------------------- 
Our nations second greatest asset (behind our minds,) is the idle time of
our computers.  Let us find a use for it that puts Linux on the map.  
(It will also show  MS Slothware as our Nation's Greatest Folly!) 




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