• MM (unregistered) in reply to Erzengel
    Erzengel:
    uses a DOS program running on a 286 emulator on Windows XP Home. ... Soooo, they've been running on XP for at least a year, and they add NEW text telling us to press CTRL+ALT+DEL. Do the programers just not know that CTRL+ALT+DEL doesn't restart the program, let alone the computer? Considering the gross incompetance displayed in the program, I'd guess that they probably aren't yet aware of that fact.
    Aware of what fact? That you're using an emulator so that you can run it on a different operating system than the one it's designed for? You said yourself that it's a DOS program. They gave the correct instructions for how to handle the problem under DOS. Should they have had every error message list out every possible operating system that could exist, now or in the future, so they can then provide the instructions for each one? Of course not. They gave the instructions for the OS it's designed for and let anyone who wants to run it under something else figure out for themselves what their own OS's equivalent would be.
  • Laie Techie (unregistered) in reply to ChiefCrazyTalk

    In all the states where I've lived, students generally turn 6 during first grade, which means they generally turn 18 their senior year of high school. Some states have a cut-off date, so my brother (birthday in December) started a year late. Also, it is not uncommon for some students (boys especially) to repeat kindergarten.

  • Tom (unregistered)

    I like the second part of that, if the keyboard becomes unresponsive. If the keyboard is unresponsive how can one input a break command with the keyboard???

  • (cs) in reply to MM
    MM:
    Erzengel:
    uses a DOS program running on a 286 emulator on Windows XP Home. ... Soooo, they've been running on XP for at least a year, and they add NEW text telling us to press CTRL+ALT+DEL. Do the programers just not know that CTRL+ALT+DEL doesn't restart the program, let alone the computer? Considering the gross incompetance displayed in the program, I'd guess that they probably aren't yet aware of that fact.
    Aware of what fact? That you're using an emulator so that you can run it on a different operating system than the one it's designed for? You said yourself that it's a DOS program. They gave the correct instructions for how to handle the problem under DOS. Should they have had every error message list out every possible operating system that could exist, now or in the future, so they can then provide the instructions for each one? Of course not. They gave the instructions for the OS it's designed for and let anyone who wants to run it under something else figure out for themselves what their own OS's equivalent would be.

    Maybe what you say would be correct, except it's the company that develops the POS software that provided the emulator. Further, they provided a launching platform written completely in windows (with normal windows, menus, and icons) that initializes a command window, starts the emulator, and then starts the application. It's not like the electronics store went to all the trouble of making the DOS program work on windows, that's why they pay the developers. Even further, all new programs (such as the software for the cage lockup) is written entirely in windows. Obviously the developers know their software is used exclusively on Windows, and putting Ctrl+Alt+Del into a new message in the legacy app seems really, really stupid. Why not just say "restart the application"? A DOS user should know that means the three finger salute while a Windows user knows it means X, end task.

  • ivucica (unregistered) in reply to Pingmaster
    Pingmaster:
    Sage:
    Last time I checked, no amount of ctrl+alt+del-ing restarts windows. In fact, all that happens is a little window pops up, called "task manager," whatever that is.

    CAPTCHA: sagaciter

    PS: Sage goes in all fields.

    Actually, win 95 and 98 it would pop up task manager first and if you pressed it again while task manager was up, it would restart the machine. Oh and Windows 1-3.x would restart the computer :D

    No, they would not, at least 3.1x would first display blue screen and if you repeated the keypress it would restart, if you pressed any other key it would resume.

    At least the way I remember it.

  • ezra abrams (unregistered)

    this cntrl alt del thing occurs again and again on the web what does it mean ? that the entire computer industry can't make a simple instruction manual; it is not the fault of hte users, that people are sarcastic just means they are snotty and intolerant. IF people keep screwing up, is it their fault or the industrys ?

  • (cs) in reply to tin
    tin:
    The real WTF is the crazy way US people seem to obsess about naming the years they are in... What the hell is a sophomore anyway?

    You know how we determine what year someone is in out here in the rest of the world? You use a number.... And strangely enough, they use consecutive numbers...

    People in the US might well obsess about sophomores, although generally speaking they tend to be co-eds. (Cue "Irish" Girl.)

    What it is, well, what it is might be:

    The word may be derived from the Latin word sophumer, which in turn comes from sophom "dialectic exercise"; or possibly from the Greek words sophos, meaning "wise", and moros, meaning "fool".

    Possibly, my arse. Colleges and Universities (not to mention Schools) in the USA are not noticeably averse to pretending Greek antecedents, even when they can't parse the alphabet. I would suggest that "wise fool" is an ideal description of a second-year student on a four year course; particularly given the inadequacies of the HSE. Both the "word" sophumer and the alleged derivation strike me as, at best, a hapax legomenon.

    Meanwhile, you might want to consider my part of "the rest of the world." The equivalent of high school consisted of the following series: "Shell, Remove, Upper Middle, Fourth, Fifth, Divsisions, Sixth, Upper Sixth."

    An exercise for the reader: put that in your pipe and smoke it.

    Might you have a problem with parsing "Freshman, Junior, Senior?" Back to Whitespace for you, young man ...

  • (cs) in reply to ezra abrams
    ezra abrams:
    it is not the fault of hte users
    Don't you mean, "it is not the fault of teh users"?
  • talsit (unregistered)

    I was working as a uni lab tutor many years ago, and it was my turn to teach the new kids how to use the computer. First lesson, how to logon to Winnt: Press CTRL-ALT-DEL.

    I get a question from one of the students, who had the left index finger on CTRL and the right index finger on ALT. She was asking where DEL was, so I pointed it out to her.

    She just kept looking from where her two fingers where (all the way to the left), to where the 3rd press needed to be (all the way). Then she looked up and asked: "Can you press it for me?"

    Inspirational.

  • Yoann (unregistered)

    I remember a piano part that ended on a huge arpeggio, a note on the final note said : "Get this one woth your nose", seems like the same :)

  • Alekos (unregistered) in reply to Pingmaster

    It could be win3.1 as you say, or DOS, or a proprietary OS designed for the specific machine.

  • Eric (unregistered) in reply to dave
    dave:
    cccccccnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnttttttttllllllllllllllllllllllll=============aaaaaaalllllllllllllltttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt=================ddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeellllllllll

    arg, couldn't reach shift.

    Well, there's your problem. You held the wrong keys down. It's CTRL, not CNTL. That's why it didn't work...

    ;)

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