Re: PC based lighting... Re. Diagnosis of Dead Desk

"Frank Wood" <frankwood95@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1129674968.441340.255010@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> David McCall wrote:
>> I'm not using any of them, but I know a little about
>> computers, and I have downloaded a couple things. To
>> some extent, the "dongle" goes with the software. That
>> is where they make their money. I have not tried any,
>> but I did play with their software (The stuff you can
>> download for free). None of them require anything
>> special for the computer.
>
> I think that the basic trouble is that PCs running under
> Windows, are not terribly reliable.

PC's are as reliable or unreliable as the people who use and
control them.

>Most of the time,
> they are fine, but this isn't good enough for lighting
> control.

If you want a reliable PC, get someone who knows what they
are doing to help you make it reliable and keep it reliable.
PC's deserve at least as much attention as a car. If you
don't change the oil, a car will become trash. If people who
don't know what they are doing load software and don't
address the problems that may arise, the PC becomes trash.

>Two examples. At boot-up, the machine on which I
> am writing this puts up an error message about 'Fast
> Find', which I never consciously use.

This is a consequence of loading an outdated version of MS
Word or Office. Or, it may be spyware that has been commonly
loaded by some web sites.

A reasonably skilled technical can solve this problem in 10
minutes or less.

>This requires a re-boot.

No, it requires attention from somone with a little PC
expertise.

> The second is that it cannot reliably remember
> my preferred format for Word documents.

Well here's the problem. Its not that the PC is unreliable,
the problem is that you don't like the defaults for MSWord.
This has what to do with the reliability of a PC as a
lighting controller?

One rule of thumb for people who don't want to be PC gurus,
and don't want to bother with PC gurus, is to use the PC for
just one thing, just like David suggested.

PCs are cheap enough that if you want to use one as just a
lighting controller, its a practical thing to do. Just load
the lighting controller software, plug in the interface, and
allow absolutely nothing else to be loaded or attached.
Ever.


.

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