It's Not A Glitch, It's A Problem

from the taking-things-more-seriously dept

While it is just a question of semantics, someone is complaining that we should stop calling computer breakdowns "glitches," as if it implies something minor happened. Instead, we should recognize that these "glitches" are usually major problems than can often seriously impact many people. It's not clear that it really matters what people call it, but it certainly does seem true that many companies don't take computer "glitches" seriously.
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  1. identicon
    Josh Hallett, 4 Mar 2005 @ 8:00pm

    other uses

    It's like saying that a heart attack or a stroke is just a glitch in the circulatory system.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Beekers, 5 Mar 2005 @ 7:07am

    glitches

    I agree, while most people are more informed on the workings of a computer and the idiosycrancies, I, peronally find any glitch a major problem. Companys need to realize that the more people that have access to the net are going to be like I am, learning. Comapanys make us feel like we shouldn't even be allowed on the net unless we are programers most of the time and that any questions are just not worth the time to answer.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    a software guy, 5 Mar 2005 @ 1:37pm

    Perspective

    That article is full of disingenious waffle. Peter Thomson doesn't know what he is talking about and is obviously more interested in pushing his own company, than solving real problems.

    A glitch is a problem with a function which doesn't stop you from achieving the ultimate outcome. It's like a keyboard shortcut not working, but you can still use a menu option.

    Try as I might I just can't consider an annoying bug on the same level of importance as a plane crashing, a nuclear meltdown or a collapsing bridge.

    Frankly, I'm tired of assholes beating up on software developers. Software is vastly more complex than most people appreciate. If you want to engineer a application that 99.9% bug free then be prepared to cough up several orders of magnitude more money and wait several years longer than otherwise. In the real world, people aren't prepared to do that.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    Jonathan Snook, 6 Mar 2005 @ 4:10am

    what about staplers?

    And goddamnit when my stapler jams and I can't staple 300 pages together!! Oh, that's no glitch, my friend. THAT'S a problem!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    Lindsay, 6 Mar 2005 @ 3:36pm

    not me

    Since i abandoned MS-WIndoze & switched to Linux i no longer get these "glitches" anymore...

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. identicon
    thecaptain, 7 Mar 2005 @ 5:07am

    Re: not me

    As a dedicated Linux users, I HATE comments like this. They give people the wrong idea and make it easy for MS fudsters to pick the linux advocates apart.

    Linux has glitches and bugs, HOWEVER, linux IS more stable and secure than windows.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  7. identicon
    Jared, 7 Mar 2005 @ 10:09am

    Explain it

    Ok, so when I get a Help Desk call about a file-share being down, I'm supposed to explain to them this could range from an issue with DNS, or that our SAN has encountered a failure on one of the NSMs? Hmmm...to save a lot of time, effort, and just plain be courteous, I'm going to stick with calling it a glitch.

    link to this | view in thread ]


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