The Whine thread.

[Alelou]

(And reviewing is out of the question any way at FF these days, because my server can't read the new captcha code ).

Oh no. Now I'm the one whining! (You can still leave anonymous reviews, surely?)

Can't help with the advice problem. I've occasionally had authors blow up at me, but that's the risk of leaving feedback that goes beyond "great story, keep it coming." Sometimes it's simple misunderstanding that I probably could have avoided with better wording, but sometimes that person is just being very sensitive. You know you meant well; try not to let it bother you too much. Could be that person was just having a really rotten day (or life) and you were the first available target.

[panyasan]

Yeah, the problem with FF reviews is that I can't read the captcha code (it looks like the Greek alphabet or something) and the voice-thingy is like listening to a street interview with lots of voices and noisees. But don't worry! I will beat the captcha monster and leave reviews even it's the last thing I do!

[Cogito]

The captcha codes are getting harder as computers get better at cracking them. Usually there's a 'reload' button to get a different captcha if the one you're facing looks too hard. Have you tried just going through a few to see if there's one you can work out?

[putaro]

You can leave yourself logged in for a week on FF if you click the check box. The captcha every time you log in is annoying.

[panyasan]

Thanks for all the ideas. I tried a couple of things, but I don't know... captcha and me aren't a good combination. The captcha thing at TRIS is sometimes not working for me, so I have to remind myself to copy my review at any time - because I have to do it all over again. Well, all for a good cause.

[Cogito]

Oh well, I think we all have to do that. I've noticed that when you fail the captcha it saves your comment but puts an extra "\" in front of every apostrophe, so I can see that some people have had to try several times before it takes. And you'll see the same in some of my comments.

[WarpGirl]

I don't know why you would be having trouble reviewing at FF.net Panyasan, I don't have to put in a code to review. Hmm, maybe you could contact the technical support people... I think anyone who freaks out over a review you leave must either be having a terrible day or is just not a nice person. Goodness knows we've all said something we shouldn't when we're not at our best, but I can't imagine anything you could possibly say about a story that would make an author angry, even on your worst day.

I've recently got a review that made me cry. Not because it was mean, it was extremely kind, but I felt like I had failed. It took a few days, but I got over it. Now I'm just looking for ways to improve. I guess some people have to learn the hard way that if they don't want criticism then sharing your work publically is not the way to go. They should be like Emily Dickenson and stash all of their stuff in closets and under the bed. The down side is you only get praised after death.

[Silverbullet]

It is damned near impossible for me to see those Captcha (sp) things, My vision is so poor. blind in one eye and blurry vision in the other. It takes a strong Magnifier for me to make out the easy ones. Most of them I cannot at all.

To say that I hate them is an understatement.

SB

[Kotik]

Oh well, I think we all have to do that. I've noticed that when you fail the captcha it saves your comment but puts an extra "\" in front of every apostrophe, so I can see that some people have had to try several times before it takes. And you'll see the same in some of my comments.

The apostrophe thing should be easy to fix for our resident programmers. The apostrophe has to be coded as \' when pumping the text into the database, else it would break the SQL statement. But they have to be 'un-slashed' when the text is generated into the text area after a failed captcha. That is the step, which is missing in the current code.

[Alelou]

Whine #1: My computer's on/off switch appears to have fallen victim to yesterday's line of thunderstorms and the resultant power outage -- even though it was plugged into a big-ass battery power supply and every other thing that was plugged into it was fine. So I have no access to my computer until that is fixed.

Whine #2: If you search for "whine" here it tells you "whine" is too common a term...

[Kotik]

Alelou, the power supply unit in your computer has a little fuse in it, that might have packed in due to a voltage peak. If you turn your computer on and the little fan in the back does not start spinning, a simple change of the power supply unit may be all that's needed to fix it and it is thankfully not very expensive and unless he has two left hands, hubby should be able to do that for you

[Cogito]

Sorry to hear about your PC woes, Alelou. That's very unfortunate, especially if your PC is powered via a UPS as it sounds from your description. It's a long shot, but it's quite common to power electronic equipment via a surge protector and this may be embedded in an extension lead and not completely obvious. If in doubt it would be worth checking just in case you have one of these somewhere in your supply. They're designed to blow up to stop the surge reaching your equipment and would produce symptoms just like this. (If you don't have one yet, it sounds as if it may be a good investment for you.)

[Alelou]

It has to be something in the computer, since it doesn't start while plugged into anything else either -- although the green blinking light on the back that indicates the machine has power does come on, and even persists for awhile after I unplug it. No fan, though. The battery back-up unit probably IS supposed to fuse to protect the equipment, but since all the other equipment plugged into it works fine, I'm thinking it can't be that. I thought perhaps the actual switch got fried, since I'm pretty sure I shut down the machine before I turned off the battery (which meant it was still running thanks to the battery after the initial power outage). Maybe it's just a weird coincidence. HP doesn't impress me with their switches.

Anyway, Jaime has a spare laptop at the moment so this isn't the crisis it might once have been. And everything on the hard drive ought to be safely backed up since that's automatic. (Crosses fingers.) I just wish I knew how to take this computer apart without a crowbar -- I've taken apart plenty of CPUs if only to add memory or yank out hard drives, but they seem to be designing them to defeat amateurs lately.

Thanks for the advice, though.

[Cogito]

Do you have a CD/DVD drive with a powered tray? Does that eject properly when you hit the appropriate button? These are normally autonomous and will operate if the internal PSU is supplying power.

[Alelou]

Nope, not working. This means it's the PSU?