BackupPC - a brief rant

[Tim]

Allegedly, on or about 23 June 2014, Ian Malone sent:
> Though I'll bet the error doesn't actually mean that the clock is not
> set correctly. The usual experience is it'll be something else going
> wrong for which the underlying cause is the clock set incorrectly and
> anonymous error is being reported that no-one ever expected to get
> to. 

But who could tell?  Because the error message is useless.  The
information mickysoft provides on their website about that error only
mentioned that you needed to set your clock.  And the plethora of
blind-leading-the-blind on internet help sites is completely unreliable
when it comes to closed source, and inadequately documented software.

Which gets back to the original poster's point:  Software authors should
make useful error message reports.  Ones that correctly identify the
fault, and allow you to take the appropriate actions.

NetworkManager was one example of crap response codes (unexplained,
anywhere, numerical codes).  And Evolution is another.  How many of us
have sat there waiting for it to finish dealing with some "unknown
background process" before we can continue using it?  The galling thing
is that /that/ "unknown" process is one of its own.


-- 
[tim at localhost ~]$ uname -rsvp
Linux 3.9.10-100.fc17.x86_64 #1 SMP Sun Jul 14 01:31:27 UTC 2013 x86_64

All mail to my mailbox is automatically deleted, there is no point
trying to privately email me, I will only read messages posted to the
public lists.

George Orwell's '1984' was supposed to be a warning against tyranny, not
a set of instructions for supposedly democratic governments.