Why do computers do this sort of thing?

Puppyraiser

PFG, Picture Framing God
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All I want to do is put a new feature on my Palm. I tried to download it and the 'puter said that there is a corrupted blahblah. (This message has been showing up for a while, but when trying to open attachments which I don't like anyway) So I tried reinstalling Adobe Acrobat Reader (the free one) and it says "Corrupt cabinet file" So I ran a search on 'cabinet file' and there is a whole list of programs that have that text in it. It won't install the Acrobat and that seems to be the gateway to download all that I want... PLEEZ tell me that either 1) there is an easy way to fix it or b) I just need a new computer. (I have this tendency to be like my grandfather. It doesn't work? Buy a new one. He had the brakes freeze up on a car one time. Went to the closest house, called a dealership, had them bring a new car, wrote a check for it and left the old car with the salesman that showed up... Like that man's style!
 
Ellen,
Does the problem appear when you're trying to download the Palm utility from the internet or when you try to transfer it to your Palm?

Acrobat Reader is probably used only to view documentation files and shouldn't have any affect on downloading or installing the utility, unless you're installing the readeron your Palm. It's still very nice to have if you're someone who actually reads the documentation.

Replacing your computer is a pretty drastic, though sometimes very appealing solution. A less drastic solution (though no small step) if lots of things are misbehaving is to back up all your data (you do that anyway, right?) reformat your hard drive and reinstall your operating system and all your programs.

This is a little like taking everything out of the garage, building a big bonfire, and putting ONLY THE CAR back in the garage, except that the fire department won't be paying you a visit and you'll need a special Key Code to put the car away and you probably don't have that anymore.

It can be very theraputic and can solve any number of problems, as well as create new ones.

<U>See here</U> to understand why you can ask one question and get two more questions instead of an answer.
 
Ellen,
Cabinet files are the files that software manufactures use to compact a whole lot of data into one file. Windows 98 has 74 different Cab files to load the operating system with.

Now your problem, Is it Adobe that is given you the error? I've never seen the program Blahblah before so it's hard to troubleshoot. You say when opening attachments, does that mean from email? I can try and help with a little more info.

Now the big question---"Why do computers do this sort of thing?"

Short Answer - Because they can.

Second Short Answer - "Microsoft Windows"
 
Yeah, see.... I was afraid you were going to say things like "backup" "program" and stuff like that. I made it do Blahblah again: Acrobat could not open 'bigclock[1.]zip' because it either is not a supported file type or because the file has become corrupted (for example, it was sent as an email attachment and wasnt't correctly decoded) THis is the same blahblah I get when trying to open some attachments. This machine has it in for me.
smileyshot22.gif
 
Originally posted by EllenAtHowards:
I made it do Blahblah again: Acrobat could not open 'bigclock[1.]zip' because it either is not a supported file type or because the file has become corrupted (for example, it was sent as an email attachment and wasnt't correctly decoded) THis is the same blahblah I get when trying to open some attachments.
Ellen, Acrobat Reader will not open a zip file. It's not supposed to. It's designed to view text and graphics files in the PDF format.

When you get the blahblah error message, had you just double-clicked on the bigclock.zip file? If not, what was the last thing you did before you got the error message?

A zip file is a file or group of files that have been compressed and combined in order to minimize download time. You need to 'unzip' the zip file before it can be installed (on the Palm, in this case.) There are free untilities out there to do that and some versions of windows have built-in 'unzipping' utilities.

Obviously, this is not a complete answer, but it's Jerry's turn now.
 
Ellen,
Ron is 100% correct Adobe Acrobat is a reader for documents in PDF format (Saves large pages in small space.) Click on this link Winzip and you can download winzip. It is a 1.8meg file. After you install the program, just click on the program file you want to unzip.
 
Originally posted by jvandy57:
Ellen,
Ron is 100% correct
Send me the money you were going to spend for a new computer! I'll split it with Jerry.

(I've never been 100% correct before. I've gotten close - maybe 60-65%, but that's about it.)

And Ellen: Your machine does <u>not</U> have it in for you. I'm not sure, but I think what you're doing is called 'personification.' Your computer is inanimate. It doesn't care.

Your software - especially your operating system - has it in for you.
 
Originally posted by Ron Eggers:

Your machine does <u>not</U> have it in for you. I'm not sure, but I think what you're doing is called 'personification.' Your computer is inanimate. It doesn't care.

Your software - especially your operating system - has it in for you.
As I suspected. It is on the machine, therefore it is of the machine. And I think it is anthropomorphism... But I now have the unzip thing and will try again. However, I didn't pick Adobe Acrobat. It picked me (that is to say, it came up automatically when I started the download. And I wasn't going to spend much on a 'puter. They have shown themselves to be untrustworthy and therefore not deserving of my Big bucks... my Palm, on the other hand, is a Good Tool and only annoys me rarely.. Anthropomorphic? Only a little...
 
Ellen, your instincts are correct: computers are living, evil objects. Anthropomorphizing is the only way to communicate with them. One's vocabulary degrades into rude scatology after only several attempts to rectify inscrutable messages. It is your computer, it is your software, regardless of what anyone says. It lives to defeat you. I know this.

Pardon me: HE lives to defeat me: mine's male.
 
Aside from all the silliness, you guys fixed this problem for me. I loaded the unzipper (passing up opportunity here, everyone note) and then put BigClock on my Palm. It was just zippididoodah! So thanks so much for solving my technoproblem. You guys are great!
 
Funny . . . My computer is a female.

You're right. The word I was looking for is 'anthropomorphism,' not 'personification.' I made the mistake of asking my son, who believes he is the god of communication arts, for the right word. Boy am I gonna have some fun with him.

PS, I asked the kid how he could give me the wrong word. He said, "Oh, yeh. Well, they mean the same thing." When he was a wee little baby, his first words were, "I'm right. You're wrong. Get used to it." I'm quite sure 'pissant' is the right word here.
 
Ellen,

I am thoroughly perplexed about your Palm!!

You MUST be in terrible pain by now. Gosh, with all the "puttin' in and takin' out" I can imagine that you should have major cramps.

What I cannot understand is exactly WHY anyone would want a "Big Clock" on their Palm?? I wear a small wrist watch and it serves my needs quite well. And, after that "Zipper" implant (implied) followed by an "Unzipper" implant, I can't imagine that there is much room left on your Palm for much of anything, let alone a "Big Clock"!!

Ellen, maybe you should concentrate on moderating and let these breakthroughs in medical technology for others who have extremely large hands and don't have to moderate anything. :D

FGII
 
So...... zees computers are female because they are good tools and zey only annoy you rarely?

Zees ees eendeed verrry eenteresteeeng.....
 
See, I've always said that computers are female or Gay. Two ladies at my office where I handle the network, turn on their computers and something happens that they won't continue to load windows. I come in turn em on NO PROBLEM boot right up log in to the Network and go about their day doing what they are supposed to.
Just goes to show you that once I touch em they are in my power. Now I'm hoping that it's because they are female because I don't swing the other way, but knowing my luck....

However, COMPUTERS LIKE WOMEN ARE A PAIN IN THE A**. CAN'T LIVE WITH EM, CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT EM.
 
Originally posted by jvandy57:
See, I've always said that computers are female or Gay. Two ladies at my office where I handle the network, turn on their computers and something happens that they won't continue to load windows. I come in turn em on NO PROBLEM .
We have three networked computers. Alfred is the main one and Bonnie and Charlie (named in no particular fashion) are the others. We are convinced that Bonnie is married to Alfred, but cheats with Charlie. Also, about once a month Bonnie has what can only be described as PMS. The other two computers never exhibit these symptoms. And you are right, all Roger has to do is walk in the vicinity of the computers and they quit doing what they were doing bad. When I was little and Daddy was out of town when something broke, one of us kids would put on Daddy's shoes and walk upstairs from his workshop in an attempt to fool the machine into thinking that he was still in town. Sometimes it worked, sometimes not....
 
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