Why do we tolerate poor software reliability?

tomstickland

DatabaseError wrote: »

I've never had the .doc extension getting lost, and I've been using MSWord since ...er... version 4.3?
I have firefox on multiple machines, with multiple profiles on some of them, and it's never got stuck in the loop you describe.

I suspect it's an id.10t error you're experiencing, which is shared by many other users.

Why are there loads of google results when I search for fixes then?
This is exactly my point.
I haven't done anything out of the ordinary yet it's still corruped.

My theory is that rhe .doc extension corrupted itself when I clicked on an attached email which must have from a newer version of word. I've managed to idiotically fix it now though.

If you think my Firefox error is an "idiot" error then tell me what I must have done to create it.

busenbust

Firefox can get stuck in a loop occasionaly IME; too many tabs open are sometimes the cause; also the initial startup time from a cold reboot has been an issue in earlier versions, which the FF development team did fix

DatabaseError

tomstickland wrote: »

Why are there loads of google results when I search for fixes then?

I heard on the radio just yesterday that the RAC are having thousands of call-outs to people who's cars won't start. It turns out that many of them attempted to clear their windscreens using their wipers, without any preparation, and blew fuses in their cars
Just because a lot of people have the same problem, it doesn't discount user error/cause.
I currently have 3 firefox profiles running various scripts + macros (quite intensive!) and a 4th window open to reply to this message with around 10 other tabs open, maybe I'm just lucky?

superscaper

tomstickland wrote: »

Why are there loads of google results when I search for fixes then?
This is exactly my point.
I haven't done anything out of the ordinary yet it's still corruped.

My theory is that rhe .doc extension corrupted itself when I clicked on an attached email which must have from a newer version of word. I've managed to idiotically fix it now though.

If you think my Firefox error is an "idiot" error then tell me what I must have done to create it.

There's no such thing as zero bug software. It's absolutely impossible to account for every software situation, for every hour I spend actually developing software I must spend about 20 plus testing/QAing/peer reviewing and you know what it still doesn't catch everything and there'll be situations I never would have even thought about using as a test condition, not unless I built it up to 1000s hours of testing for every hour of development, I doubt you'd be happy paying 100s of times as much for software. And by "reliability" what percentage are we talking about of actual users and also MTBF? I bet it's actually probably quite good compared to reliability in any other industry.

tomstickland

DatabaseError wrote: »

I heard on the radio just yesterday that the RAC are having thousands of call-outs to people who's cars won't start. It turns out that many of them attempted to clear their windscreens using their wipers, without any preparation, and blew fuses in their cars
Just because a lot of people have the same problem, it doesn't discount user error/cause.
I currently have 3 firefox profiles running various scripts + macros (quite intensive!) and a 4th window open to reply to this message with around 10 other tabs open, maybe I'm just lucky?

VW have have fixed 1000s of their cars due to faulty coil packs.
Vauxhall have had to issue a fix to cam belt tensioner issues.
Driver "idiocy" had nothing to do with those.

Where's the analogy to trying to clear a windscreen in Firefox? It purports to be an application that will browse websites and auto update itself. You tell me where I've gone wrong in installing a fresh version a few weeks ago and from then on using it to browse web sites.

My google searches show that trying to update every day is a KNOWN ISSUE that some users have experienced. Nothing to do with the way that they use it.

Now, I am being provocative because I spend quite a lot of my work time generating software control systems for specialised production processes. So I understand the limitations of complex systems and realistic development times.

buglawton

Actually, on a modern car stuffed with electronics, it's childishly simple engineering for an electronic fuse to trip the moment a wiper cannot move due to ice or snow (manually user-resettable). If manfrs are failing to include this then it's poor product design/poor quality.

dehaani

Q: Why do we tolerate poor software reliability?

A: I do not tolerate it. OK?

tomstickland

Regarding ie8, there's lots of other idiots out there suffering the same problem.

http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/InternetExplorer/thread/45a7283b-f708-4d10-944d-ae6b520f2e5c

Yorkie1

pcombo wrote: »

1. You can pick never to show the IE8 update again so that it dont install.

Could someone please tell me how to do this (nice easy steps) so that I'm not prompted to iupdate to IE8 on a daily basis?

I have Vista.

Thanks a lot