software doesn't work

Poststructural Pub
1

I have a new theory. Software doesn’t work.

Perhaps I exaggerate. I love Firefox. I like some of the Microsoft applications. But for the most part, software is a pain the hiney.

Do we agree?

2

I agree that it doesn’t work when I try it. But my wife can get it to work so easily that I can’t remember why I ever had a problem with it…until I try it the next time.

3

I’m sorry Dale, but your question (in Microsoft Query, version 3.65) is incompatible with my Mac operating system which can only consider questions posed in the cross-platform compatible versions of MS starting with version 4.01.
I could spend $75 on a translation program, but by then you’ll probably be using MS Query version 6.0, which the cheap software doesn’t touch.

4

Just remember: “It’s not a bug; it’s a feature.”

Or perhaps this will help:

I really hate this darn computer,
I wish that I could sell it;
It never does quite what I want,
But only what I tell it.

:smiley:

5

I think I already posted about this, but this article

http://www.cs.gonzaga.edu/depalma/chapter2.html

Explains why software doesn’t work. Believe me, this article is worth the time it take to read.

Dale

6

Fascinating article, Dale. Reminds me of my ex-husband, an electronics engineer working for Hewlett-Packard designing medical equipment in the 1970s. He used to tell me he hated the work, that it made him uncomfortable, and when I asked why, he said, “Because we have too much information and we don’t know how to control it.” He finally quit and has gone on to do much simpler things having nothing to do with computers.

Susan

7

I recall that article. Great article. So true.

8

Yes, it is. He does a good job of pointing out the similarities in the pitfalls of military procurement and software development. What he left out, though, is the gravitational black hole created when the software development is part of a military procurement. It ain’t pretty.