xerox@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (James Osborne) (01/17/90)
In article <18541@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU> jalden@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Joshua M. Alden) writes: *lots of deleted stuff throughout* > Broadcast has a bad reputation among those of us who work at User >Services here at Dartmouth. A Broadcast message that pops up at a bad >time can produce crashes that are much worse than what I've seen from a >networking loss. Also, if alot of people start using it (like our >freshmen this year), the net slows measurably. > >-Josh. Being an in-dorm computer consultant, I was rudely woken up last Sunday night at 1:30 AM by a distraught freshman from upstairs. She was in shock. It seems that she was writing page 6 of a 6-page paper that was due in 8 hours, and she had JUST hit "Save" when she got a "Hey, what's up?" broadcast from someone using a spurious chooser name. The problem was that, for some reason, the broadcsat dialog box would not allow her to click on ok or answer. It was as if the buttons didn't exist. Of course, she had not saved any of her previous work. The computer was acting perfectly normal, except that she couldn't do anything. I tried everything I could think of- sending her more broadcasts to see if she could click ok on those, I tried interrupting and returning to shell, I tried sending a broadcast while in the monitor. Nothing. Kaput. In the end she had to reboot and start from scratch, as none of her paper was saved before the computer crashed. The professor DID NOT accept late papers. It really happened... -- DISCLAIMER (Dis-klam'-ur) n- 1. The denial of a claim or association with an idea or position. 2. The right to screw up. email---> xerox@mac.Dartmouth.edu (I have nothing to do with xerox, and do not support a sue-happy USA)
mxmora@unix.SRI.COM (Matt Mora) (01/19/90)
Doesn't broadcast have an option to turn off receiving messages? -- ___________________________________________________________ Matthew Mora SRI International mxmora@unix.sri.com ___________________________________________________________
dnagent@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU (Mark D Phillips) (01/19/90)
In article <8168@unix.SRI.COM> mxmora@unix.UUCP (Matt Mora) writes: > >Doesn't broadcast have an option to turn off >receiving messages? Yes, but it reverts to allowing messages again when you reboot. This makes it pretty frustrating for those who only want to activate it occasionally. CloseView used to be the same way, where either you had to turn it off every time you start up, or you had to reactivate it with init cdev/Aask/INITPicker and reboot. Apple saw the light and fixed this problem. I hope Joachim Lindenberg comes around as well. And to the individual who suggested that a net use 'receive- only' copies of Broadcast--That's fine, until someone logs onto GEnie and gets the full-featured version, gives it to all his/her friends, &c. --Mark Phillips