Re: Manual from Hell


Dave Hinz wrote:
On 29 Jun 2006 18:45:50 -0700, Andrew VK3BFA <ablight@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Mm, bit of xenophobia here. Yes, to a native English speaker, its
hilarious , but can you understand it? -

Sure. That also isn't the point. If they want to sell their crap over
here, they can at least get someone to translate something important,
who knows what the heck they're doing.



Oh bull***. You don't need a technical writer to say "Unplug this
device before working on the internal parts". And the second and third
pane? I honestly don't have a clue what the fark they're warning me not
to do. And I'm sorry, but I don't get much inspiration from "never pres
sure power cord by clog then ambroin broken cause short or spark."
Makes me suspect their engineers are equally as careless if they don't
even make sure their translations have actual words in them.

Nothing annoys me worse than buying something that, as built, can't
work. Seeing something like this will make me suspect that this product
is made to be sold, not to be used.

Snipped a bit, hope it doesnt mangle what you said. I agree - it is
annoying, and its incomprehensible. And maybe I should have made myself
clearer - for me, its a GREAT manual - its got pictures, you can figure
it out.

I am a working electronics technician - a heck of a lot of my work is
setting up new consumer junk (from Guess Where) with TOTALLY inadequate
manuals, and if the customer is over about 65, forget it - they will
NEVER figure it out. I can do it, simplify the operation as much as
possible, and tell them to ignore everything except on/off, channel
up/down, and volume up/down. And go back 3 days later and tell them
again.....Do a good line in simplified 4 button remote controls.....oh,
and the WORST of the lot is the European stuff, weird hieroglyphics on
control buttons, useful for doing something in Finland probably....

And they dont reallly care if YOU (as an individual) buy their crap or
not - enough people are, worldwide, it doesnt matter about the
"instructions". They can, and do, sell all they can crank out....looked
at your trade deficit lately, its pretty scary.....

So, sorry if I was narky - as someone said here, if you need those most
basic instructions anyway, you shouldnt be going anywhere near it....

And Technical Writing IS a specialised art - witness the number of
manuals from native English speakers that are bloody hopeless....so
will beg to differ on that one.

The BEST manual I have is for an old HP Nixie tube based counter, C
1965 - still goes well, manual weighs about 5lbs, even has Boolean
equations for the logic circuitry...love it, a joy to read.....

Andrew VK3BFA.

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