Why is comms so f***ing hard?
Why is it that getting two computers to talk to one another is still so bloody difficult? Why hasn't this sort of thing been sorted out yet?
Be it NetBIOS, IPX, IP, BlueTooth, USB, RSnnn, XON/XOFF, DCD or whatever, it is always a painful struggle that results in one or both machines being so badly mangled that it is tempting to rebuild it from scratch.
Whether it is networking, file sharing or setting up printers, WHY IS IT ALWAYS SO DAMN F***ING HARD?
Ever since I was at school pissing about with RAIR black boxes and a Research Machines 380z and a TSR80, I have hated comms.
I hated comms when failing to download games from cassette onto my Spectrum.
I hated comms when trying to get a printer hooked up via an RS232 cable - WTF were the crossovers all about? And why was it sometimes DCD and sometimes XON/XOFF and sometimes it worked with neither?
The first networked boxes I used, the CP/M based DMS HiNet, made networking easy, they said. Did it bollocks. The software house had to recruit someone especially to manage it.
I brought down a network of 3 ICL mainframes by trying to access the 1st via the 3rd via the 2nd when already logged into the 1st. The buggers had to be rebooted to get them working again.
I have yet to work on a client site where remote access actually worked properly.
I thought VNC was good for remote access until the XP firewall came along. Can I configure it to get through it? Can I f**k.
I bought WinGate some years ago to simplify sharing of a dial-up line but they lost the plot and it has not worked for years, so even commercial solutions are f**ked.
My broadband modem is autoconfigured remotely by the ISP to not work so I have to change it manually.
I have a 8Gb USB stick that can be read by Linux or Windows ME but it locks up XP machines.
I have got XP machines that can read/write shares on my ME machines but the ME machines have never even been able to ping the XP machines, unless the built-in firewall is completely disabled. WTF is that all about?
Now it's Ubuntu "the operating system for the rest of us". Trying to set up directory shares and printer shares between it and XP and Windows ME has been driving me absolutely mad for the past two f***ing weeks. Ubuntu is sold on the concept it is easy - is it f**k. Setting up printers in Ubuntu is the same baby-stamping abortion of pain as it has always been in Unix. And you can shove Samba back up the Devil's arse where it came from.
It didn't please me when I had to go out and by a DVI cable to hook up the monitor. £40, FFS. Oh, and is that DVI-A, DVI-D or DVI-I and single link or dual link? 29 pins on a f***ing monitor lead, FFS. Why not just use a 25-pin RS232 lead and take us all the f***ing way back to the 1970s you bunch of bastards?
20-odd years ago, ICL had a poster campaign saying
Whenever I saw them, I'd write on the bottom:
And nothing seems to have changed.
COMMS IS TULIP AND I HATE IT
Be it NetBIOS, IPX, IP, BlueTooth, USB, RSnnn, XON/XOFF, DCD or whatever, it is always a painful struggle that results in one or both machines being so badly mangled that it is tempting to rebuild it from scratch.
Whether it is networking, file sharing or setting up printers, WHY IS IT ALWAYS SO DAMN F***ING HARD?
Ever since I was at school pissing about with RAIR black boxes and a Research Machines 380z and a TSR80, I have hated comms.
I hated comms when failing to download games from cassette onto my Spectrum.
I hated comms when trying to get a printer hooked up via an RS232 cable - WTF were the crossovers all about? And why was it sometimes DCD and sometimes XON/XOFF and sometimes it worked with neither?
The first networked boxes I used, the CP/M based DMS HiNet, made networking easy, they said. Did it bollocks. The software house had to recruit someone especially to manage it.
I brought down a network of 3 ICL mainframes by trying to access the 1st via the 3rd via the 2nd when already logged into the 1st. The buggers had to be rebooted to get them working again.
I have yet to work on a client site where remote access actually worked properly.
I thought VNC was good for remote access until the XP firewall came along. Can I configure it to get through it? Can I f**k.
I bought WinGate some years ago to simplify sharing of a dial-up line but they lost the plot and it has not worked for years, so even commercial solutions are f**ked.
My broadband modem is autoconfigured remotely by the ISP to not work so I have to change it manually.
I have a 8Gb USB stick that can be read by Linux or Windows ME but it locks up XP machines.
I have got XP machines that can read/write shares on my ME machines but the ME machines have never even been able to ping the XP machines, unless the built-in firewall is completely disabled. WTF is that all about?
Now it's Ubuntu "the operating system for the rest of us". Trying to set up directory shares and printer shares between it and XP and Windows ME has been driving me absolutely mad for the past two f***ing weeks. Ubuntu is sold on the concept it is easy - is it f**k. Setting up printers in Ubuntu is the same baby-stamping abortion of pain as it has always been in Unix. And you can shove Samba back up the Devil's arse where it came from.
It didn't please me when I had to go out and by a DVI cable to hook up the monitor. £40, FFS. Oh, and is that DVI-A, DVI-D or DVI-I and single link or dual link? 29 pins on a f***ing monitor lead, FFS. Why not just use a 25-pin RS232 lead and take us all the f***ing way back to the 1970s you bunch of bastards?
20-odd years ago, ICL had a poster campaign saying
We should be talking to one another.
Because the f***ing computers won't.
COMMS IS TULIP AND I HATE IT 
I can get way beyond that and have the Linux box verify the printer connection is available, then get a CIFS or CUPS error when I try to print. I can get a share working one way, yet the other way the box is invisible.
Fairy nuffski.
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