Moo! The Musings of a Plaid Cow

In the process of upgrading my PC at work to XP, I changed the base directory that the the Microsoft Excel AutoRecover data was stored in. Actually I had forgotten that the AutoRecover data was stored there, but was reminded of this when I tried to change tabs in the “Options…” dialog:

This might seem innocuous, but the only direct way to change the directory is through the “Options…” dialog, and this error is shown instead of switching tabs in the dialog. This would not likely be an issue if any of the following were true of the design:

• There was a way to change the directory from the error dialog.
• A default directory was used in the case that the custom directory could not be used.
• The “Options…” dialog could be opened without a document open.
• The dialog switched tabs even though the error occurred.
• The error could just be ignored.

Well, the last is partially true. The error is just ignored silently when starting up Excel. There is no warning that AutoRecover data is not being saved. This is probably why I missed is when I changed the directory name previously. Luckily, I’ve only been running this way a couple of weeks.

(Of note, I don’t have it pointing to a standard location like C:\Temp because one of the likely recovery scenarios is a power failure and there is a script that runs on login that deletes the temporary files. The logic of this can be debated separately.)

Error reporting can be one of the most difficult things bout programming software. You’re trying to tell the user that something went wonky, but not send them into an all out panic. This excellent example (of how not to do error reporting) comes from Microsoft Outlook:

The first issue with this error is that I shouldn’t have gotten it. It comes up at least once a week when I delete the message from the index window while I still have the message open in a separate window and then I try to delete the message from the message window.

• When I delete a message from the index, any windows in which it is open could be automatically closed.
• When I try to delete a message from it’s window, if it’s not where you thought it was, check to see if it moved to the trash. If it is, great, just close the window without complaint. Otherwise you can report to the user that you’re incompetent and can’t keep track of the messages.

And why not tell me which one of the possibilities the actually error is.

• It was already moved
• It was already deleted
• Access was denied

Aren’t you keeping track? Please try to pay attention.

I was trying to delete a file from a Windows network share at work when I got an interesting error:

Perhaps I should try deleting a different file?

Or, if you’re actually having this error, and trying to delete the file, it is likely that the filename is exceeding the maximum path length (for some reason). Try moving the files up a directory, and then deleting them.

After using the iPod for a while, I had a few questions about the interface. Give these a shot, in the comments, and I’ll post the correct answers in a few days.

1. After pressing pause, you can press play to resume the current song.

2. When listening to a playlist, at the beginning of a track, pressing the previous track button will take you to the previous track you heard.

3. When listening to music, it is possible for the screen to be empty below the status bar.

I’m on the lookout for helpful error messages, like this one I got in Outlook:

I was sent a recurring meeting notice at work yesterday and after adding it to my calendar, I was told by Microsoft Outlook that:

1 instance of this recurring appointment conflicts with another appointment on your calendar.

Thanks, but would you mind telling me when the conflict occurs?

I did eventually find the conflict (after looking through a years worth of appointments). Even though I got the meeting notice yesterday, Outlook was kind enough to add all of the meetings since it was first scheduled back in July. One of the meetings back in November conflicted with this new meeting. Now that is useful information.

When typing the other day, Microsoft word let me know about the correct spelling for gsbngjsdffds:

How thoughtful.

When trying to save a spreadsheet in Excel the other day, I got this incredibly informative dialog box:

At least it was equitable about it and showed it to me when I tried to save to a network drive or “save as” to a local drive. Brilliant design.

Of course, there is more than one of keeping your browsing secure. This email from work illustrates one of the methods, though it is not well favored:

Many of you have experienced problems with Microsoft Internet Explorer crashing under certain circumstances, especially when attempting to access … web sites. This note is just to let everyone know that this issue is one of two top priority items that the support team are working to resolve. The problem is the result of a critical security patch published by Microsoft recently and we are working closely with Microsoft to find a permanent solution. We expect to have better news tomorrow.

You can’t get infected if you can’t visit a site….

Thanks to Jennifer for commenting on the good looks on the site. Since it looks it, it’s obvious it wasn’t done by me. It’s just one of the new templates from the Movable Type 3.2 Style Gallery.

I plan to start updating the templates and styles “soon” (including putting back all of the “Blogging Buddies” links on the side. When it starts looking worse, you know I’m at work.