At some point overnight, my PC rebooted. It was one of those "spontaneous combustion" events which occurs periodically when Windows XP just can't take the load anymore and blows up. On login this morning, the Windows Error reporter dutifully popped up and asked if I would like to send a report to Microsoft, which I did as I have so many times previously.
The Microsoft diagnostic tool helpfully told me that the problem was "a driver", and then asked me to grade it's performance as "the information was informative", "the information was confusing", "the information was wrong". How about another option — "the information was useless". Why can't they tell me which driver failed? Otherwise, how would I realistically be able to fix the problem?
It reminds me of an old joke…
A helicopter was flying around above Seattle when an electrical malfunction disabled all of the aircraft’s electronic navigation and communications equipment.
Due to the clouds and haze, the pilot could not determine the helicopter’s position. The pilot saw a tall building, flew toward it, circled, and held up a handwritten sign that said “WHERE AM I?” in large letters. People in the tall building quickly responded to the aircraft, drew a large sign, and held it in a building window. Their sign said “YOU ARE IN A HELICOPTER.”
The pilot smiled, waved, looked at his map, determined the course to steer to SEATAC airport, and landed safely. After they were on the ground, the copilot asked the pilot how he had done it.
“I knew it had to be Microsoft, because they gave me a technically correct but completely useless answer.”
Alec Saunders is the Vice President of Developer Relations for BlackBerry make Research in Motion. This is his personal blog, with his personal viewpoints. Prior to this Alec was the CEO and co-founder of Calliflower — the easiest way to hold a meeting, online, on a conference call, or on the go. A double-decade veteran of product management and marketing, he spent nine years at Microsoft where he helped launch Windows 95, the first two versions of Internet Explorer, the Universal Plug and Play initiative, the push into home markets, opt-in email marketing and what might well go down in history as the very first direct email list ever.
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