Calibre just destroyed my hard drive data

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by Prestidigitweeze

Oh, good, the developer's here! I've always meant to ask:

If I create a folder, name it Self, fill it with books I've read and designate it as my Calibre library, then create an empty folder, name it New Self, designate it as my new library and tell Calibre to delete the old one, will I become a fresher and less cynical person as a result? Will I acquire the ability of children to learn new languages quickly? Will I be able to do the watusi without stuttering once more?

This is the Teleport Question. If you get into the Teleport in New York, and then are teleported to Los Angeles (or, in a rational world, vice versa) are you the same person as when you started? Or has You Number One been demolished (obscure SF reference) and the digital information about You Number One used to construct an identical but brand new You Number Two?

With this in mind, it should be clear that all that will happen in your hypothetical is that the books you have read and placed in Self will become unread books in New Self. You will not be fresher or less cynical, but you will be more ignorant.

You will also be a criminal, having copied all those books and transferred them to the possession of the New You, thereby, in effect, pirating them to yourself.

This is something that would be impossible, or at least inconvenient, for you to do without calibre, so make a donation today!

[Exer]

I have to be honest here, I've been using iTunes for years, and that darn program updates about twice a month it seems, but I've never once read that 66 page user-agreement. Even though I have to click "I have read" each time just to be able to install the update. I must have clicked that thing 50 times over the years, and I've never actually read it.

According to this forum, that makes me a very stupid person.

So be it, I suppose I'm stupid, but I bet I'm not the only person here who does that and many similar things.

Now 66 pages might not be the exact same thing as a 1 sentence dialog, but for all the people yelling "just read it", I guess its pretty much the same difference.

[stickybuns]

Originally Posted by Exer

I have to be honest here, I've been using iTunes for years, and that darn program updates about twice a month it seems, but I've never once read that 66 page user-agreement. Even though I have to click "I have read" each time just to be able to install the update. I must have clicked that thing 50 times over the years, and I've never actually read it.

According to this forum, that makes me a very stupid person.

So be it, I suppose I'm stupid, but I bet I'm not the only person here who does that and many similar things.

Now 66 pages might not be the exact same thing as a 1 sentence dialog, but for all the people yelling "just read it", I guess its pretty much the same difference.

Well, I think the hostility is more in regards to a newcomer making a blanket declaration of "this program sucks!" Who wants to help someone who starts a conversation with that sort of attitude?

I've had my share of boneheaded moments on the computer, but I'm fairly certain that if I came to this forum with the same problem as the OP, I would be greeted with a very different response. Why? Because I would have posted something along the lines of, "I made a very stupid error; can something be done to help others not do the same?"

Or, more likely, "Oh, dear lord, what have I done?!?! " But I like to pretend that I'd be calm and collected in a crisis. Polite, yes. Calm and collected? Not so much.

[Xanthe]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

So that this thread does not go to waste, I've improved the confirmation dialog, see attached screenshot.


Any suggestions on how to make it even clearer are most welcome.

Perhaps add "Hey stupid! to the beginning of the box, and when they click "yes" have another window pop up with Homer Simpson smacking his forehead saying "Doh!"?

The "Hey stupid!" will at least get their attention because no one likes to be called stupid, and maybe, just maybe, the user will stop and really think about what they are doing. The Homer Simpson window will verify that to them that they really did do a bone-headed thing.

Calibre is not the only program that does a permanent buh-bye when you confirm a deletion. I've done major-league stupid things and lost files with other programs, but it's been my own fault because I assumed i knew what I was doing when it turned out I really didn't. I don't blame the program for my inattention.

One of the first things that any Windows owner should learn is never keep anything important in Desktop.

[OtterBooks]

This is the Teleport Question. If you get into the Teleport in New York, and then are teleported to Los Angeles (or, in a rational world, vice versa) are you the same person as when you started? Or has You Number One been demolished (obscure SF reference) and the digital information about You Number One used to construct an identical but brand new You Number Two?

teleportation is murder imo.

[Prestidigitweeze]

Originally Posted by Harmon

This is the Teleport Question. If you get into the Teleport in New York, and then are teleported to Los Angeles (or, in a rational world, vice versa) are you the same person as when you started?

Oh, good, the non-developer's here! I am completely unsure as to what you mean by the paragraph I have quoted and pasted . . . pasted the clown's face on the paper in the scrap book with the other meat so that it matches the same color as . . . the paragraph. For that matter, I am unsure as to what the word carrot means. I have been thinking and thinking about this and I believe it means to die a horrible death after swallowing handfuls of enormous diamonds, as in this sentence: He has swallowed handfuls of enormous diamonds and now lies carroted.

Actually, I believe I'm referring not to the Teleport Question but rather to the Dr. Donald Ewen Cameron Solution, since as everyone knows, a teleport is a tiny yet convenient garage in which one parks one's telephone when one is not sailing it on the airwaves, which travel into the radio and are then consumed in enormous handfuls by . . . by . . . my mother is very fond of her telephone port. So am I am fond of her teleport phone and the airwaves and the . . . telephone parking on the clown face head.

I am unsure as to your question, or if it is one or many of them.

[Agama]

Originally Posted by Harmon

You will also be a criminal, having copied all those books and transferred them to the possession of the New You, thereby, in effect, pirating them to yourself.

But at least your old self won't be around to prosecute!

[travger]

Originally Posted by Xanthe

One of the first things that any Windows owner should learn is never keep anything important in Desktop.

What? Why? And here I am putting all my downloaded books into folder in my desktop (and from there into calibre); also I have some music folders on desktop...

But what should I do - bloat 'My Documents' to contain all th data on C disk?
Example: C:\Documents and Settings\user\Desktop\Books\

Under 'user' I have important things like Windows and Program Settings...

[ThR]

Under "user" you have also your Desktop, see your example. So - if you bloat your "desktop" or if you bloat "my documents" - it's irrelevant. If "my documents" is on C, "desktop" is also on C, meaning all your data are on C disk.

[travger]

Ok, I'll stuff everything into My Docs and shortcut them. Just somehow never thought that desktop is folder...

[rhmorrison]

Originally Posted by travger

What? Why? And here I am putting all my downloaded books into folder in my desktop (and from there into calibre); also I have some music folders on desktop...

But what should I do - bloat 'My Documents' to contain all th data on C disk?
Example: C:\Documents and Settings\user\Desktop\Books\

Under 'user' I have important things like Windows and Program Settings...

Originally Posted by travger

Ok, I'll stuff everything into My Docs and shortcut them. Just somehow never thought that desktop is folder...

[theducks]

Originally Posted by travger

What? Why? And here I am putting all my downloaded books into folder in my desktop (and from there into calibre); also I have some music folders on desktop...

But what should I do - bloat 'My Documents' to contain all th data on C disk?
Example: C:\Documents and Settings\user\Desktop\Books\

Under 'user' I have important things like Windows and Program Settings...

Your 'Desktop' (as you see it) is a special shortcut to (on XP): C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Desktop (and overlaid with the contents of: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Desktop)

There is no difference in disk (or Drive letter) space used

[DuskyRose]

Originally Posted by Exer

Now 66 pages might not be the exact same thing as a 1 sentence dialog, but for all the people yelling "just read it", I guess its pretty much the same difference.

I disagree. There's a huge difference between reading a 66 page contract and a couple of sentences of information about what you're doing on your computer.

I do skim the contract, but don't fully read it. But it's a contract and not an operator's manual. I skim and agree so I can use the program, although I know I should read all of it. In that case, if I agree to something I didn't mean too, my bad.

But when any kind of warning or (!) pops up, then it's mean to be read, right then and there. And if you don't understand what you're doing, or what it's asking, then don't do it until you do or are willing to experiment and crap out.

There's a whole world of difference there. And for the warning, "Just read it" is the bare minimum of work a program user should be able to do. If you can't do that, you don't have much excuse to complain.

And seriously, no backups of important data is just asking for trouble. And in that case it's certain to find you. Nothing in electronics is forever.

[Prestidigitweeze]

"The boy put out his own forehead."

[Exer]

Originally Posted by DuskyRose

I disagree. There's a huge difference between reading a 66 page contract and a couple of sentences of information about what you're doing on your computer.

I do skim the contract, but don't fully read it. But it's a contract and not an operator's manual. I skim and agree so I can use the program, although I know I should read all of it. In that case, if I agree to something I didn't mean too, my bad.

Are you kidding? I'd dare say that contracts are even more important than an operating manual. Neglecting to read the operating manual for my toaster will just result in me making poor toast. Neglecting to read a contract could result in jail time, or fines, or all manner of nastiness that you would have to be a lawyer to truly understand.

You can't sign over your rights in an operating manual. You can't make legally binding agreements from within an operating manual.

The point I'm getting at is people here are yelling at this guy for not reading a popup warning, yet we completely ignore MUCH more important things all the time. If you say reading a popup warning is the "bare minimum" a person should do as a user of a program, well then reading that FULL 66 page contract seems the bare minimum a user should be REQUIRED to do to use iTunes. You could be signing over your soul and first born child, I'd imagine that is pretty important -- yet you yourself admitted you don't fully read it.

I don't either.

I just think that is a funny double standard that most of us here are guilty of. The same people who point at a guy for not reading a popup are likely the people who skim and skip through contracts and terms of service, thinking to themselves "Ugh, I'm not going to read all that crap!".