My long-time ex-colleague gave me a call this morning and she sounded very unstable, panic and desparate. I asked her what's wrong. She told me that her program could not run and she needs to submit it soon. Her voice sounded like she is going to cry.
Slowly, I calmed her down and asked her to detail the problem to me. Her VS.NET 2003 refused to let her debug. Luckily, it was a .NET problem and I'm able to help her solve it But one funny thing was, when I asked her to type the name of her application's start page in the browser, she typed http://localhost/herprojectname.vbasic.vbproj and complained that it didn't work.
Although I was furious for a moment (I mean how could a developer who have written the application from start do a silly thing like that?), I helped her out and finally guided her through the steps that was listed in http://support.microsoft.com
Incidents like these really makes me think. People come to me to ask for help on their program issues, pc issues and all sorts of computer-related issues. I'm now stucked in doing something (and it is major stuff!). My brain is dead, I'm out of ideas and don't know where to start. Who can I turn to? Who can I turn to?
7 comments:
call me la ;) i will help you one :P
It has proved that you are the master of .net !!! Hahahaha. Well, I'm so good in Java, if you are in doubt in Java, dont be hesitate to contact me. Hee hee...
It was not a silly mistake but rather a lack of understanding of fundamental web technologies. Microsoft has done too good a job to hide too much details from the developer till she does not know what she is doing and yet she has done it! I believe she doesn't know what does http mean to webapp development..let alone requesting a .vbproj file
They are a lot of ppl you can call like fellow MVPs and friend in IT community.
You can also post it in your blog so that all the readers of you blog can response to it.
Hi Jeff,
Yeah! When I encounter any probs with Java, I will sure look for ya. ;)
acser,
You are right! She is still very new to development. :(
Hi acchong,
Congrats on your MVP nomination :)
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