RU

Rod Upfold

14/09/2003 4:19 PM

Equipment Manuals

You would think that what we pay for a piece of equipment, that the
manufactures could produce a descent manua.


Who has the worst manual?


Thank you


Rodl


This topic has 17 replies

ms

"2manytoyz"

in reply to Rod Upfold on 14/09/2003 4:19 PM

16/09/2003 11:56 PM

It took me a while to find this website again, but it's worth the read:
http://www.engrish.com/

;-)

md

"mttt"

in reply to Rod Upfold on 14/09/2003 4:19 PM

15/09/2003 2:13 PM


"Larry Jaques" <jake@di\/ersify.com> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> On Sun, 14 Sep 2003 16:19:28 -0400, Rod Upfold <[email protected]>
> pixelated:
>
> My vote goes to Harbor Fright for Japanese pre-translated
> Taiwanese-translated Engrish manuals from China. Y'know,
> they're usually the one-sheet jobs.

I'll second that...

You'll usually find something along the lines of "Warning! Never before
fingers to put! Correlation can be caustic or eye damage!" Admittedly, I'll
spend the 60 seconds to see if I can make heads'er'tails out'a it.

Lr

"Leon"

in reply to Rod Upfold on 14/09/2003 4:19 PM

14/09/2003 11:37 PM


"Charlie Self" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> It's a toss up. Name a brand, and at least some of that brand's manuals
will be
> terrible. About 36 brands have some decent manuals. No brand has all good
> manuals.


Cept probably Leigh.

cC

[email protected] (Charlie Self)

in reply to "Leon" on 14/09/2003 11:37 PM

15/09/2003 1:03 AM

Leon responds:

>"Charlie Self" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>news:[email protected]...
>> It's a toss up. Name a brand, and at least some of that brand's manuals
>will be
>> terrible. About 36 brands have some decent manuals. No brand has all good
>> manuals.
>
>
>Cept probably Leigh.
>

Ya got me! You are correct. Their manuals are nearly unbelievable they're so
good.



Charlie Self

"Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without
integrity is dangerous and dreadful."
Samuel Johnson












Cc

"CW"

in reply to Rod Upfold on 14/09/2003 4:19 PM

15/09/2003 8:02 AM

You should see the ones that typically ship with Japanese CNC mills.
$100.000 for the mill and a nearly incomprehensible manual.
"2manytoyz" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Only 1 comes to mind from the hundreds of tools I've bought for home and
> work... A milling machine from Grizzly was a literal translation from
> Chinese. Almost comical to read.
>
> "Rod Upfold" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> > You would think that what we pay for a piece of equipment, that the
> > manufactures could produce a descent manua.
> >
> >
> > Who has the worst manual?
> >
> >
> > Thank you
> >
> >
> > Rodl
> >
>
>

cC

[email protected] (Charlie Self)

in reply to "CW" on 15/09/2003 8:02 AM

15/09/2003 10:24 AM

CW responds:

>You should see the ones that typically ship with Japanese CNC mills.
>$100.000 for the mill and a nearly incomprehensible manual.
>"2manytoyz" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>news:[email protected]...
>> Only 1 comes to mind from the hundreds of tools I've bought for home and
>> work... A milling machine from Grizzly was a literal translation from
>> Chinese. Almost comical to read.

Ya hadda be there, I think, but...one helluva long time ago ('62), I was
working for a small ad agency down on Williams St, in NYC; a friend bought one
of the early Honda motorbikes, a 50cc buzzer. A great little "zip up the West
Side Drive" vehicle if you were lucky enough to stay out of the way of the
Pontiacs, Buicks, Fords and whatnot that made up the major sources of crumpled
sheetmetal. The manual was damned near impossible to read without laughing. In
fact, it was damned near impossible to read.

Charlie Self

"Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without
integrity is dangerous and dreadful."
Samuel Johnson












Rl

Ramsey

in reply to "CW" on 15/09/2003 8:02 AM

16/09/2003 9:26 AM

I'll second that!1 They were half printed in Japanese and a little
Engish ( or something close to it). Had a 175 and the manual was
totally worthless but we all them because they were a curiousity item.

On 15 Sep 2003 10:24:54 GMT, [email protected] (Charlie Self)
wrote:

>CW responds:
>
>>You should see the ones that typically ship with Japanese CNC mills.
>>$100.000 for the mill and a nearly incomprehensible manual.
>>"2manytoyz" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>>news:[email protected]...
>>> Only 1 comes to mind from the hundreds of tools I've bought for home and
>>> work... A milling machine from Grizzly was a literal translation from
>>> Chinese. Almost comical to read.
>
>Ya hadda be there, I think, but...one helluva long time ago ('62), I was
>working for a small ad agency down on Williams St, in NYC; a friend bought one
>of the early Honda motorbikes, a 50cc buzzer. A great little "zip up the West
>Side Drive" vehicle if you were lucky enough to stay out of the way of the
>Pontiacs, Buicks, Fords and whatnot that made up the major sources of crumpled
>sheetmetal. The manual was damned near impossible to read without laughing. In
>fact, it was damned near impossible to read.
>
>Charlie Self
>
>"Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without
>integrity is dangerous and dreadful."
>Samuel Johnson
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

cC

[email protected] (Charlie Self)

in reply to Ramsey on 16/09/2003 9:26 AM

16/09/2003 4:08 PM

Larry Ramsey responds:

>I'll second that!1 They were half printed in Japanese and a little
>Engish ( or something close to it). Had a 175 and the manual was
>totally worthless but we all them because they were a curiousity item.
>
>On 15 Sep 2003 10:24:54 GMT, [email protected] (Charlie Self)
>wrote:
>
>>CW responds:
>>
>>>You should see the ones that typically ship with Japanese CNC mills.
>>>$100.000 for the mill and a nearly incomprehensible manual.
>>>"2manytoyz" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>>>news:[email protected]...
>>>> Only 1 comes to mind from the hundreds of tools I've bought for home and
>>>> work... A milling machine from Grizzly was a literal translation from
>>>> Chinese. Almost comical to read.
>>
>>Ya hadda be there, I think, but...one helluva long time ago ('62), I was
>>working for a small ad agency down on Williams St, in NYC; a friend bought
>one
>>of the early Honda motorbikes, a 50cc buzzer. A great little "zip up the
>West
>>Side Drive" vehicle if you were lucky enough to stay out of the way of the
>>Pontiacs, Buicks, Fords and whatnot that made up the major sources of
>crumpled
>>sheetmetal. The manual was damned near impossible to read without laughing.
>In

Damn. I had nearly forgotten the 305cc Honda Super Hawk I bought in, I think,
'65. One neat motorcycle until I tried off-roading it a bit. But the manual
was incredibly unreadable.

Charlie Self

"Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without
integrity is dangerous and dreadful."
Samuel Johnson












RA

Rich Andrews

in reply to Rod Upfold on 14/09/2003 4:19 PM

15/09/2003 4:10 AM

Larry Jaques <jake@di\/ersify.com> wrote in
news:[email protected]:

> On Sun, 14 Sep 2003 16:19:28 -0400, Rod Upfold <[email protected]>
> pixelated:
>
>>You would think that what we pay for a piece of equipment, that the
>>manufactures could produce a descent manua.
>
> You'd think that, given the price we pay, a Wrecker could
> at least spell "manufacturers", "decent", and "manual", eh?
>
>>Who has the worst manual?
>
> My vote goes to Harbor Fright for Japanese pre-translated
> Taiwanese-translated Engrish manuals from China. Y'know,
> they're usually the one-sheet jobs.
>
>
> -
> Inside every older person is a younger person wondering WTF happened.
> ---
> http://diversify.com Website Application Programming
>

The one that always cracked me up was a Sony manual that said that the
signal was "sprit" 3 ways.

r


--
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from
magic."

Arthur C. Clarke (1917 - ), "Technology and the Future"

RA

Rich Andrews

in reply to Rod Upfold on 14/09/2003 4:19 PM

16/09/2003 5:48 AM

Silvan <[email protected]> wrote in news:sqvh31-ndb.ln1
@giganator.family.lan:

> Rod Upfold wrote:
>
>> Who has the worst manual?
>
> My Grizzly bandsaw are were hard to putting from instruct together, as I
> recall. I'm too lazy to go dig it out.
>
> I've seen some real doosies though. Computer stuff actually has to be
the
> worst, I think.
>

It helps to read the manuals out loud with a really bad Japanese accent as
in "the lice bowl was sprit tree way by catawac dwiver". (:>)

r


--
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from
magic."

Arthur C. Clarke (1917 - ), "Technology and the Future"

WC

Ward Cleaver

in reply to Rod Upfold on 14/09/2003 4:19 PM

16/09/2003 7:40 PM

Larry Jaques wrote in rec.woodworking

> On Mon, 15 Sep 2003 04:10:06 -0000, Rich Andrews <[email protected]>
> pixelated:
>
>>>>Who has the worst manual?
>>>
>>> My vote goes to Harbor Fright for Japanese pre-translated
>>> Taiwanese-translated Engrish manuals from China. Y'know,
>>> they're usually the one-sheet jobs.

I once bought something at HF, don't remember what it was, but the
manual was small xeroxed sheet of paper that actually had some
handwritten info added at the bottom.

ms

"2manytoyz"

in reply to Rod Upfold on 14/09/2003 4:19 PM

14/09/2003 10:56 PM

Only 1 comes to mind from the hundreds of tools I've bought for home and
work... A milling machine from Grizzly was a literal translation from
Chinese. Almost comical to read.

"Rod Upfold" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> You would think that what we pay for a piece of equipment, that the
> manufactures could produce a descent manua.
>
>
> Who has the worst manual?
>
>
> Thank you
>
>
> Rodl
>

LJ

Larry Jaques

in reply to Rod Upfold on 14/09/2003 4:19 PM

15/09/2003 2:14 PM

On Mon, 15 Sep 2003 04:10:06 -0000, Rich Andrews <[email protected]>
pixelated:

>>>Who has the worst manual?
>>
>> My vote goes to Harbor Fright for Japanese pre-translated
>> Taiwanese-translated Engrish manuals from China. Y'know,
>> they're usually the one-sheet jobs.

>The one that always cracked me up was a Sony manual that said that the
>signal was "sprit" 3 ways.

That must have been a Freudian srip.


-
Inside every older person is a younger person wondering WTF happened.
---
http://diversify.com Website Application Programming

Sd

Silvan

in reply to Rod Upfold on 14/09/2003 4:19 PM

17/09/2003 2:15 AM

Ward Cleaver wrote:

> I once bought something at HF, don't remember what it was, but the
> manual was small xeroxed sheet of paper that actually had some
> handwritten info added at the bottom.

Yeah, I've seen that a lot. Usually really whispy thin paper at that.

--
Michael McIntyre ---- Silvan <[email protected]>
Linux fanatic, and certified Geek; registered Linux user #243621
Confirmed post number: 17791 Approximate word count: 533730
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5407/

Sd

Silvan

in reply to Rod Upfold on 14/09/2003 4:19 PM

17/09/2003 1:59 AM

charlie b wrote:

> Sked Dule rather than Shed Dule. How do Brits
> pronounce "school"?

Same way we do, I think. British pronunciation is weird though. I find a
lot of words that we Americans pronounce in a manner that I would expect to
be more characteristic of the British, and vice versa.

--
Michael McIntyre ---- Silvan <[email protected]>
Linux fanatic, and certified Geek; registered Linux user #243621
Confirmed post number: 17790 Approximate word count: 533700
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5407/

JK

Jim K

in reply to Rod Upfold on 14/09/2003 4:19 PM

19/09/2003 2:48 AM

One of the reasons for this is that many companies use their engineers
to write the user manual thereby saving the cost of a dedicated
technical writer (yes - I is a tech wroter). As an example I've been
having a long battle with our engineers about a button in our Internet
interface. It says "delete mailbox." We get about a call a month from
customers who wonder if this will delete (as in destroy) their
e-mailbox. All it really does is "empty mailbox." Your next e-mail
will be delivered with no problem.

They won't change the button because technically it does delete the
mailbox, but reconstructs it with the next e-mail. I've tried to argue
that the customer really doesn't care about being technically
accurate, they just want to empty out their mailbox.

Thanks for letting me vent -- this little problem has been bugging me
for 3 years (along with an un-numbered amount of customer calls).

On Sun, 14 Sep 2003 16:19:28 -0400, Rod Upfold <[email protected]> wrote:

>You would think that what we pay for a piece of equipment, that the
>manufactures could produce a descent manua.
>
>
>Who has the worst manual?
>
>
>Thank you
>
>
>Rodl

LJ

Larry Jaques

in reply to Rod Upfold on 14/09/2003 4:19 PM

15/09/2003 1:13 AM

On Sun, 14 Sep 2003 16:19:28 -0400, Rod Upfold <[email protected]>
pixelated:

>You would think that what we pay for a piece of equipment, that the
>manufactures could produce a descent manua.

You'd think that, given the price we pay, a Wrecker could
at least spell "manufacturers", "decent", and "manual", eh?

>Who has the worst manual?

My vote goes to Harbor Fright for Japanese pre-translated
Taiwanese-translated Engrish manuals from China. Y'know,
they're usually the one-sheet jobs.


-
Inside every older person is a younger person wondering WTF happened.
---
http://diversify.com Website Application Programming


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