Saturday, May 02, 2009

BYBS: Help from the Web



Despite years of working with computers I'm still undecided as to whether they actually solve problems or create new ones. In particular, I find myself confounded over and over again by problems of the form:

Me: Move this from here to here.
Computer: <does nothing>
M: Why didn't you move the file?
C: You didn't say "simon says."
M: Alright - "Simon says."
C: What?
M: Move the file!
C: You didn't say "Simon says."
M: <gets out mallet>

I have found help countless times from those people who have posted information about how to solve problems like this; though the details might be slightly different.

As a means of "giving back" I have myself started doing this, though the information is so specialized as to be of use to only a very few people (ever want to know how to link C code dynamically with Java, but only when using MingW and Cygwin together through Eclipse? Neither do I actually). Nevertheless, posting even trival instructions has given me new appreciation for people who post help info --- it takes a lot more work than I thought!

I am going to try my hand at posting some stuff that may be more generally useful to people. We'll see how it goes. Till then have a great week.

5 comments:

CyberCelt said...

That is a great idea. You will be a blessing for many, I am sure. I have run into problems using blogspot, so I usually write them up on one of my blogs.

Stopping by for BYBS. We have been traveling, so I have missed a few.

SandyCarlson said...

Sounds like a great plan! Good luck.

PERBS said...

They say a positive attitude is a blessing to yourself and others. Ü I try to be positive -- I am positive that blogger is a raving lunatic at times!

Unknown said...

well with the world as it is i'm sure that someone (or even many!) will find appreciative info like how to find the any key on the computer... (a friend actually asked me that before!)

Daisy said...

Hi! Thanks for the email about the comment problem on my blog. I don't know what happened 3 days ago (as your mail was on tht day) but now I see the comments section once you click on the word. Hmm... I think it has to do with "commentluv" since I am using that prog.

XoXoX