Access is denied

I have a NAS (Network Attached Storage) device on my home network. This file-server-in-a-box provides a convenient place for family members to store and backup their data to a location that can be accessed from any computer in the house. There are a few file shares on this device that are public -- meaning any computer on the network (belonging to either friends or family) can access them. In addition to these public file shares, each family member has their own password-protected share to which they can save files they don't want available to everyone else.

The NAS device came with software that was advertised to automatically copy files from computers on the network to the file server each time they are modified. When I purchased the NAS device, I planned to use this feature to provide backups in case of data loss and to provide some automated versioning of files. I installed this software on my notebook computer and configured it to monitor a handful of directories to be versioned and backed up to my private file share on the NAS box.

However, there's a problem...


The backup software appears to be properly detecting file changes and attempts to backup data to the file share. However, it fails to write versioned backups to the NAS device. Each time it attempts to save a file, an error is written to a log file stating "Unable to copy file: Access is denied."

It appears that the backup software that came with the NAS device cannot write to password-protected shares on the NAS device. It only backs up data to unprotected public shares. Saving share passwords to the Windows XP Home network password list doesn't seem to help.

Who designed NAS backup software that doesn't support saving data to password-protected file shares? Did no designer, developer, or tester consider that users might want to backup to non-public shares?

Compare the extension to other extensions

Just what technical knowledge is expected of Outlook users?

Choose a Department

I'm looking for a book. I go to Amazon perform a search based on the author's name. I don't see what I'm looking for on the first page of results and want to change the sorting of the results. Instead of a sort option, there's a Department link with a message stating "Choose a Department to enable sorting." So I click the link to select a department.

Wow! So many options. I guess I'll select Books.

My search only returned results in one Department. Why did I have to select one of the one departments to sort?

Is there a problem here? Am I expecting too much to think the Amazon search engine might show me sortable book results if all the results for my search are books? Might sending me to book results create a new problem?

883 = 641 + 2613

* Pink box shows what's under the drop-down list.

Do the math!

883 total invitations sent. 641 opened and 2613 unopened?

Displaying 1-100 of 743 opened. I thought it said there were 641 opened.

The numbers just don't add up.

And to top it all off, the names and addresses displayed to me (blurred in the image above) are not all from my invite lists. It looks like I'm being shown data belonging to other Eventbrite customers.

Enter or wait?

I swipe my credit card in the gas pump. It prompts me to ENTER ZIPCODE. Before I can respond it puts ONE MOMENT PLEASE on the display. I wait and nothing happens.

Problematic Pizza Promotions

Home sick and no food in the house. Not wanting to leave the house, KC goes online to check out the pizza offerings at Shakey's.



KC checks the current promotions.


Today's promotions don't look very tasty. KC reports "I thought to myself 'Bug!' and ordered myself a pizza anyway."

Submitted by KC

Show me the way to go home

Checking out a TV Guide site.



Want to see what's on tomorrow but mistakenly hit the Thursday link.



Occured or occurred? Go home? How?

Submitted by Phil Kirkham

Need vs. Want

How to inspire confidence

Trying again works in many cases? And when it doesn't: try again, again? Wonder if their cars come with similar instructions.


Submitted by Dale Emery

How many times must I login?

One of my favorite features in Firefox is the ability to close the browser and have it remember what I was viewing and reload those pages automatically when I restart the browser. This feature usually works great at home and on the road.

However, when I launch Firefox at the office, I get something like the following:

Firefox 3 displays a proxy login dialog for every tab that accesses data outside the corporate intranet. This is quite annoying. (Firefox 2 only prompted to login to the proxy once -- no matter how many tabs were being opened.)

Loading...

If it never stops loading, is it really loading?

Very annoying to write a blog comment and then have the captcha never load.

There appears to be something wrong with Blogger comment captchas. Saw complaints on Twitter about Blogger captchas not loading, and then Phil Kirkham submits the image above. I think there's a problem here.

Quick, hide the computer before the cops come!

Back when I did software tutoring for new computer users, I got more repeat questions about this Windows 95/98 dialog than anything else.

Did I break the law? I didn't mean to do anything illegal. What did I do? Am I in trouble? Is Microsoft going to report me to the police? I'm afraid to use my computer. I don't want to be an accidental law breaker.

When software incorrectly leads users to believe they've done something illegal, I say there's a problem here.

Where's OK?

I'd like to click OK, but where's the button? Clicking OK in the text has no effect.

To block or to reset? What is the question?

I click the Block button in response to a Windows AntiSpyware Notice. I then get a dialog that I assume is intended to confirm my selection.

Two questions in a single dialog? Which question am I being asked to answer? Do I answer the question asking if I want to block a change or do I answer the question asking if I want to reset back to an unknown (to me) original?

Blocked Title

I'm flipping channels and get a warning that a program exceeds the DVR's parental control rating limit.

What is 'this program' that exceeds the rating limits? It doesn't tell me what I'm being asked to unlock. I check the 'More Info' option and it only tells me that someone has set a rating limit and I must enter the password to remove the limit.

It appears that there is no way to view the title without unlocking the program. So, I enter my parental control password to see the unknown program with a blocked title. (If my children were in the room with me, how would I know if it was okay to unlock the box?)

After entering my password, I can view the program but the DVR still shows 'Blocked Title' as the name of the program. I still don't know what I am watching. Why can I see the program but not the title?

I try alternate ways of viewing the title and details about the program. Everything says the program is called 'Blocked Title'.

After watching for a little while, I realize the program is the movie Alien. Why is the title still blocked after the parental controls are unlocked and I'm watching the program?

Inconsistency

If not the selected lines, what is it graphing?

Page 0, Showing 0-0 of 0

Search returned over 5000 results but says "Showing 0-0 of 0". Wonder what it does if there really are no results returned.

Fatal envelope error? I didn't even know I had an envelope.

Fatal? Does Outlook have deadly envelopes? Envelope data lost but document is available? Why should I care about an envelope I didn't know I had? What!?

10 PRINT "Is There A Problem Here?" : GOTO 10

If being an American has taught me anything, it is that voting counts.
If being an American has taught me anything else, it is that anything worth doing is worth over-doing.
Case in point, voting our opinions on this site. Could I simply choose EVERY option and save my votes?

If you said yes, send me your address and I'll send you a Lee Greenwood CD***.

Mention in Passing:
It was not obvious how to commit my vote. My American know-how turns to mush in the absence of a submit button.
Also, pretend you are visually impaired and require the text size to be quite large. As you increase the size of text, you will notice that the iframe containing the voting options will begin to clip, disallowing certain options from being seen.

***No. I Won't.

Help! I can't find my ⅝ key!

Submitted by Yuval K. See source Digg post by Louie Baur.

Google Reader Corpus Callostomy

Or...The left pane does not know what the right pane is doing.
After navigating to "Home", I observe there are updates a plenty.
But my Subscriptions are woefully ignorant of this fact.

Who thought this was useful?

Playing MP3's on home theater system: Eight character file names? What year is this? Now, what song is playing? How do I find the song I want to hear?

Twittering thing about Twitter

The questions that I ask are:

• Is -119860 more than 140?
• Is there a problem here?
• Should the user be allowed to type so much?
  
• If yes, could the information be conveyed in a way that might appear to be better than this one?
• What would you suggest to be displayed in the error message?
  

Facebook App's Phantom Reviews Haiku

Displaying them all?
Were they all written in white?
Is this a problem?

Yes, there is a problem here.

Only a few days after launching this blog, I hit the main URL of http://blog.isthereaproblemhere.com/ and find that there are no stories. I see that my browser is warning me of some code errors on the page. I haven't made any code changes that I can remember since I last saw it working. So I investigate. The last change I made was to some sidebar text. So I go look at that sidebar text and I find the problem.


Blogger's HTML/JavaScript editor apparently has a feature that automatically inserts
tags in the middle of JavaScript code if the Rich Text link is clicked. My looking at sidebar text in the Rich Text editor broke the JavaScript code. :(

To view Microsoft content, download Firefox

Is Microsoft really directing me to download a competitor's product to view their content?

This item?

Would you like to completely erase all files?

All of what files? More context please.

Can I give an unspecified response?

Whatever Microsoft developer thought this was okay should suffer some unspecified unpleasantness.

Don't tell me my address is invalid!

Flying J lost my business because their email address rules prohibited my valid address.

How long?

I don't have several hours. Do I risk selecting Yes? If it takes longer than I can wait, what happens if I interrupt the firmware update?

Was part of my request completed?

What part of my multi-part request was not completed? We're my plane tickets purchased but no hotel reservations made? Was my credit card charged? My travel agent is a web site. Who do I call? Is it safe to use the browser back button?

I live there. How can it be invalid?

Apparently Colorado Springs is not a valid city because it is abbreviated in the database. It took many failed attempts to get it abbreviated just like the system wanted. Anyone that lives in a city with a name containing more than 13 characters has to know how their city is abbreviated in an unseen database.