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Why does no one want to actually _answer his question_? It's one of my major gripes with tech forums these days: Someone asks a question about "How can I do
by muppetman 14y ago
Why does no one want to actually _answer his question_?
It's one of my major gripes with tech forums these days: Someone asks a question about "How can I do X?" and instead of providing an answer, everyone piles up to say "HAHAH X is so stupid, you should be doing Y".
I actually preface some of my questions these days with "I realise X might sound silly, but I'd like to do it so please answer the question instead of telling my why I shouldn't be doing it"
Stop it already. Or at least ANSWER THE QUESTION and then politely suggest why you think it might be a bad idea.
- ricardobeat 14y agoWhat kind of knife should I use to behead a 5.8' average-build man?
- Jimmie 14y agoEquating killing someone to using an old OS is a terrible straw-man argument.
- ricardobeat 14y agoIt's not a comparison. Maybe I went a bit too far, but I think it answers "why does no one want to actually answer his question?". Sometimes the subject at hand or the content raises flags/concerns that overshadow the question. It's human nature.
- statictype 14y agoIn which case, don't answer the question at all. If a person is completely new and this is obvious from the question, then you might be helping by saying "don't do that", otherwise, you're just adding noise.
- ricardobeat 14y ago> If a person is completely new and this is obvious from the question That seems to be the case. It's obvious that wanting to run a modern browser on Windows 3.1 is completely naive, hence the responses.
- sukuriant 14y agoNo, I'm sorry. When you believe that someone is going to harm themselves or others with their decisions, and no one else has mentioned the dangerous of their intentions, it is the kind thing to do to warn them. This is especially the case here. This person wanted to do something clearly dangerous and with a critical system (see critical systems testing) that could potentially encourage it to fail and cause lives to be lost. They needed to be warned. Not answering when there is great danger is just as cruel as answering with the help to make it happen because yes, someone will help.
- yew 14y agoIt's completely reasonable to warn them. It's not reasonable to post yet another warning in a thread consisting entirely of warnings and no answers. It's possible that they don't know what they are doing. It's also possible that you don't know what they are doing. In this case, for example, it looks like the time clock software actually interfaces with the saw controller. If you feel this level of risk aversion is unacceptable - well, I hope you have a better argument than what's been posted so far.
- sukuriant 14y agoI don't, which is why I didn't add anything. Actually, the accepted, official answer was more than perfect. People rambling the same things isn't helpful, you're right; however, had no one said anything as useful as the accepted answer, then it would have been helpful to warn them. We were speaking on different wavelengths, I hope that clears it up
- dbecker 14y agoOn behalf of people who might be operating the $150,000 bandsaw, I appreciate the responses that addressed the bigger picture safety issue.
- lukeschlather 14y agoThe issues have very little to do with the age of the OS. If someone was asking how to get Firefox running on an embedded Linux machine operating a saw, I would expect most people to be saying roughly the same thing: Don't mess with a sensitive piece of software, buy a dedicated machine to run your timecard system.
- astrodust 14y agoBand saw. Windows 3.1. If that isn't a killing machine, I don't know what is.
- yew 14y agoDo you want full separation of the head at the neck? You might be able to manage that with a knife, but a specialized bone saw is more likely to get the job done. I believe most modern medical procedures use powered saws, specifically because of the difficulty of cutting bone. If you insist on using a knife, a high-quality steak knife and some time will do. (That's a ludicrously absurd comparison, by the way. But you already know that.)
- astrodust 14y agoThis is the number one problem with the Internet. It doesn't know when to say no, when to stop being "helpful". It only says yes, it only continues to provide. In the early days this was a good thing, it encouraged growth and exploration, but now it leads otherwise well intentioned people down the road to ruin. It doesn't know when to stop. It doesn't know when to call in support. It's a bartender gleefully serving a bar full of alcoholics drunk out of their minds on whatever and thinking it's doing a great job. It's a good thing that you get some push-back once in a while. It's a good thing to say "No" or at least ask for clarification. In the age where people's first resort is often Google and their last stop is Wikipedia, any chance to inject a measure of level-headed guidance into the situation is always appreciated.
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- kevinpet 14y agoI'm sure the bandsaw mentioned in the SO post would do it quite easily.
- __alexs 14y agoI don't know but there's some good advice on what to do with the body in this thread. http://ask.metafilter.com/7921/If-you-killed-somebody-how-would-you-dispose-of-the-body-without-getting-caught http://ask.metafilter.com/7921/If-you-killed-somebody-how-wo...
- icefox 14y agoFor what it is worth we got Arora (QtWebKit) working on windows 98. It isn't Win 3.11, but the closest thing to an answer. http://arorabrowser.blogspot.com/2009/01/modern-webkit-browser-on-windows-98.html http://arorabrowser.blogspot.com/2009/01/modern-webkit-brows...
- talmand 14y agoYou know, I have the same complaint. It seems there are too many who find it more fun to berate and humiliate as opposed to offering help when someone has a problem.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- bigiain 14y agohttp://perl.plover.com/Questions.html http://perl.plover.com/Questions.html Anybody who's been around a while has seen this happen before - probably many many times. You don't think answering the question "How can I run complicated and probably out-of-support software on the same out-of-support-and-vulnerable machine that controls a _bandsaw_?" is not the right thing to do?
- CamperBob2 14y agoWhy does no one want to actually _answer his question_? Because it was a stupid question. Running a networked time clock application on the same Windows 3.1 machine that runs a band saw is a stupid idea. You don't do anyone any favors when you try to sugarcoat the obvious.
- sunday2012 14y agoThis is a very old problem. It predates the web. My personal favourite has always been "Why would you want to do that?" Sometimes this is a fair question. (But c'mon, if someone buys a computer, then they are to entitled to use it any way they want to.) Most of the time the person "answering" does not know the answer. So they make a silly comment. It's never polite. They rarely admit they do not have an answer. The positive aspect of StackOverflow is you always get a reponse. They will almost always respond. The negative aspect is the response is often worthless comments, or claims that the question is not allowed/in the wrong forum/etc. Remember StackOverlfow are Windows programmers. They are a frustrated bunch. They are tense. They are easily perturbed. Now, as for this guy's question, what I'd like to know is why he wants a "modern browser"? In other words, specifically what does he need the modern features for? Because there may be workarounds, using simple techniques, for whatever he needs the browser to do.