[postgis-users] Windows Crash

Chris Hermansen chris.hermansen at timberline.ca
Wed Jul 16 06:11:18 PDT 2008


Heck, Regina, you certainly didn't offend me.  I just didn't find any 
useful information on that site.  It reminded me of the talking heads 
seen on news channels.  The discussion of the 4.0 release of KDE for 
example - on and on and on and on about how stupid it was to release KDE 
4.0 in that state.  OK, we get the point, next?

I guess anyone with enough starch in their boxers could write something 
equally negative about pretty much anything - Windows, OS/X, gardening, 
string theory, waste management.  Maybe even about PostGIS!  :-) :-)  I 
just don't personally see a whole lot of point in being so 
single-mindedly provocative.

Really, I guess this holds especially true in relation to open source.  
Why spend a LOT of energy criticizing it, when it's possible to spend 
the same amount of time improving it?  Instead of carping, file bug 
reports or enhancement reports or whatever.  Write code.  Write 
documentation.  Write tutorials.  Help people out on mailing lists!

If you believe that Windows is better than Linux because various Linux 
distros offer too many choices when it comes to package managers or 
whatever, that's a good reason for you to use Windows.  For me, it's a 
good reason to pick a good Linux distro and stay with it for awhile.  
Both valid points of view, I think.

You're right about this being off-topic, but to try to bring it back a 
bit - you help people out a HUGE amount on this list.  You are a 
significant contributor to the success of us all in our day to day use 
of PostGIS.  I think it's fair to say that PostGIS, and many other 
things like PostGIS, would not exist if it were not for you and other 
similar-minded people.

So thanks!  Thanks for all the individual and specific bits of help you 
give to people, and thanks even more for seeing value - to you and to 
others - in the activity of supporting us all on this list.

Obe, Regina wrote:
> Chris,
>
> I apologize if I offended anyone here.  I guess this really was very
> off-topic and probably was inappropriate for this list.
>
> >From a monetary stand-point humor sales and if you amass enough audience
> you can get a lot of advertising revenue.
>
> I think its a matter of opininion and not taking yourself too seriously
> also. Most people take themselves too seriously and get offended easily
> when you suggest something they are doing is not peachy.  
>
> I personally found the site educational.  I think there are silly things
> that all sides of the fence do and to pretend these silly things don't
> exist is not doing anyone any good. People who complain about things get
> results.  As they say the squeaky wheel gets the grease.
>
> There are things in Linux I absolutely love, but it does frustrate me a
> bit that each Linux distro is very different.  I open up OpenSuse -
> there's yahtz or whatever, Redhat has YUM and the place they decide to
> install things is slightly different between Fedora and EL, and Ubuntu
> (well I haven't really used that enough to complain about it - except it
> has its apt-get and its apt-get crashed my last pc when I tried to
> upgrade my open office). But that is all of minor consequence - I'm sure
> if I dug deeper I would see a reason why no one can decide where to put
> things.
>
> Similar things can be said about Windows and MacOSX I am sure.  Although
> I guess I've been drinking the Windows cool-aid for so long that I can't
> think of anything bad to say about it except its command-line sucks
> compared to Linux - but its new Windows Powershell interface is changing
> all of that (so now I can run rm and ls and some of those other great
> commands I learned in my Linux world in windows).  Makes me wonder hey -
> is Microsoft secretly injecting some unix juice in their system.  I
> expect their new upcoming OS to be "Hey guys we are Unix too".
>
> Thanks,
> Regina
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: postgis-users-bounces at postgis.refractions.net
> [mailto:postgis-users-bounces at postgis.refractions.net] On Behalf Of
> Chris Hermansen
> Sent: Sunday, July 13, 2008 1:47 PM
> To: PostGIS Users Discussion
> Subject: Re: [postgis-users] Windows Crash
>
> Regina, all;
>
> I read the top four articles on this blog and I guess I just don't 
> understand why someone would waste their valuable (?) time writing such 
> pointless material, whether the topic be Windows or Linux or OS/X or 
> whatever.
>
> Obe, Regina wrote:
>   
>> Slightly off topic.  Has anyone seen this Linux Haters Blog.  All 
>> Linux users should read it to understand how the mind of a windows 
>> user works so that we can interoperate.
>>  
>> http://linuxhaters.blogspot.com/
>>  
>> Similarly I would like to see a windows haters blog so I can form a 
>> fully unbiased opinion of the various factions.  Is there such a
>>     
> thing?
>   
>>     
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>   
>> *From:* postgis-users-bounces at postgis.refractions.net 
>> [mailto:postgis-users-bounces at postgis.refractions.net] *On Behalf Of 
>> *Bruce Rindahl
>> *Sent:* Thursday, June 26, 2008 3:53 PM
>> *To:* PostGIS Users Discussion
>> *Subject:* Re: [postgis-users] Windows Crash
>>
>> Also on a long shot - do you have any hardware conflicts?
>> Start->Control Panel->System->Hardware->Device Manager
>> Are there any little yellow info symbols?
>> Bruce
>>
>> Paul Ramsey wrote:
>>     
>>> This is in no way a PostGIS problem, certainly nothing we can ever
>>> fix, just something that the particular combination of PgAdmin, the
>>> geometry we are feeding it, and the way the Windows rendering system
>>> are interacting.
>>>
>>> My experience has been that these days the thing that causes a modern
>>> operating system (Windows, Linux, whatever) to crash is bad hardware,
>>> usually bad memory, but sometimes other things. Basically, the
>>> operating system itself is usually rock solid until you shake the
>>> foundations it sits on, the hardware.
>>>
>>> So basically, all I can offer is the doctor's advice to the patient
>>> who said "doctor, doctor, it hurts when I raise my arm over my
>>> head!"... "don't raise your arm over your head".
>>>
>>> In the meantime, if you want to fiddle with things, swapping the
>>>       
> order
>   
>>> of your memory in the sockets, changing out the video card, even
>>> changing your screen resolution, might change the interaction such
>>> that you can exercise this particular use case without dropping your
>>> OS to the floor.
>>>
>>> P.
>>>
>>> On Thu, Jun 26, 2008 at 10:31 AM, Obe, Regina
>>>       
> <robe.dnd at cityofboston.gov> wrote:
>   
>>>   
>>>       
>>>> I second Bruce's comment about unhelpful comments.
>>>>
>>>> It may actually have nothing to do with Windows in fact.
>>>>
>>>> Now getting back to the crash issue.  Bob if you are still having
>>>>         
> the same
>   
>>>> issue with that file, maybe you can post that (or provide a link to
>>>>         
> the
>   
>>>> shape file you loaded).  It could be something to do with the
>>>>         
> shapefile.
>   
>>>> I recall having this same issue with one particular geometry file
>>>>         
> way back
>   
>>>> in PgAdmin 1.6 and it was when I scrolled to a specific record it
>>>>         
> would
>   
>>>> crash, but then later additions (I either maybe never selected the
>>>>         
> geometry
>   
>>>> field again) or it was fixed in later versions.  Doing an AsText
>>>> always seemed to work where as displaying the raw binary was where I
>>>>         
> ran
>   
>>>> into issues.
>>>>
>>>> The other possibility is that it could be a defective graphics card.
>>>>         
> I
>   
>>>> forget which video cards I had bad runs with, but I remember having
>>>>         
> this
>   
>>>> same exact issue with my favorite programming editor JEdit.  I had 2
>>>> identical computers with same drivers etc and for some reason I
>>>>         
> would get
>   
>>>> intermittent crashes on one of them.  I finally just got fed up and
>>>>         
> replaced
>   
>>>> the graphics card and then it worked fine.
>>>>
>>>> Just some thoughts.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks,
>>>> Regina
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
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>>>>         
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-- 
Regards,

Chris Hermansen         mailto:chris.hermansen at timberline.ca
tel+1.604.714.2878 · fax+1.604.733.0631 · mob+1.778.232.0644
Timberline Natural Resource Group · http://www.timberline.ca
401 · 958 West 8th Avenue  · Vancouver BC · Canada · V5Z 1E5




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