sticki icky wiki?

A few days ago, I installed Instiki on my desktop and laptop with the intention of at last being able to use wiki technology to help out with developing my novels. I won't rehash why this could be better for certain types of work that helps a writer keep track of 100,000 word stories, for now, accept that I suspect it can. So, Instiki.

I am running into a technical issue with Instiki, but I haven't had time to research the area of my ignorance. I've got half a mind ( don't say it!) to email the guy and tell him if he'll help me out, I'll write him documentation that actually contains all the necessary steps and information. Cool Technology just should NOT be limited to geeks. That's unfair. It's like writing down the instructions for how to drive a car if you've never driven before and saying "Step on the brake" while neglecting to say where the brake may be found. Hmm. On the other hand, I seem to remember many times before feeling like a technology problem was my fault only to later discover it was a bug. Instiki cannot remember where to find itself. A useless product if it has to be reinstalled every time. I get it up and working, and then as soon as I close the browser and then open it again to use it, gone. Can't find it. Obviously a pathing issue, but where is the freaking thing expecting, but failing, to find the path?

In other technology news, I installed MySQL on my desktop at work, and it wouldn't install all the way. I just got a localhost port error. I can't find anything on the XP desktop at work that would allow me to explicitly open the required TCP port. So, I installed it on the laptop, ran into the same issue, but since I use Norton Firewall on my laptop, I was able to manually allow local traffic on the required TCP port and then everything was hunky dory. Googling the error revealed that I am FAR from alone in getting this error message. I could not find a posted soloution that made sense. And there we have the disconnect that drives me insane. Known problem. Lots of people have it. None of the "solutions" make any sense. It's plain from looking at the cries for help that this is mostly happening to people installing for the first time. So, chances are many of those people are looking to get their feet wet and do NOT, by definition!!! possess the inside knowledge required to figure out the problem on their own or make sense of the few posted solutions. (None of which, by the way, had to do with explicitly opening the correct TCP port on the localhost).

Similiar issue with Norton firewall by the way. I gave up calling and emailing their crap tech support. Windows XP has some fiendish way of saying it's OFF when it's really not and it breaks certain parts of Live update. I found this out only because I was at a hotel with the laptop and while I was setting up the broadband connection, up comes this message that says windows firewall ( which I turned off becuase I use Norton ) was "protecting" certain connections and did I want to turn that off so I could use the hotel broadband. Why, yes, I believe I do. Click. And ever since then, all portions of Norton Live update have worked on my laptop without any error. See, the reason I knew it was Win XP Firewall was that Norton worked perfectly on my laptop when the progession was this: Get laptop with XP Pro prior to release of SP2. Install Norton Firewall and have no problems whatsoever. Along comes SP2 which is installed with Norton running. No problems. Then my hard drive dies.

Oh. Dell Technical Support Hell. Hell! I curse the fact that I am too poor to buy a Mac. It took me 45 minutes to convince the tech that my hard drive had failed. Oh, please. It was horrible. I won't digress. So. Dell is unable to fathom the sort of customer service that sends you a replacement hard drive with all the stuff on it that was there when you bought it the first time. Alas. Windows XP with SP2 is now installed prior to Norton (with Firewall turned off) and now Live Update no longer works. Used to. With the same damn software installed. Norton sends its tech support to the same school that Dell does. Holy Hell. So, anyway, the computer gods tricked my laptop into turning off firewall and Norton Live Update works. But I cannot similarly trick the desktop because I live in the country and there is no broadband. It's dial up heck. Sigh. Google the error. Golly! Many people have the problem and all of them report that Norton's solution doesn't work. Why? Because the real problem is Windows Firewall only no one will admit it.

So, Instiki has an issue with instructions / behavior that confuses and frustrates the brave not-a-total-freaking-geek geek. I am busy. Kid. School, day job, novel writing. I really don't have time to waste. I should be fixing chapters for my next historical instead of doing this. But I'm crabby amd needed to vent.

No wonder people hate technology AND technologists, too.

General Crabbiness level: moderate to high