Do you run into this often?
 

You are setting up a thing – either a physical thing or especially a computer app – that the instructions do not name consistently. At one point in the instructions, it can be called a “special do-dad” and someplace else the same damn thing is called “secret device.”

I’ve spent the past two days setting up Ring security cameras and the authenticator for LastPass and I keep running into this completely unnecessary complication.

I’ve been using LastPass on my computer for a year and I wanted to use it on my phone. Setting up LastPass Authenticator on my phone had me pulling my hair out. On my phone I was asked to “enter the secret code.” What secret code? I didn’t know I had a secret code! I looked at all the screen shots on my computer I took of the original set-up procedure from a year ago and there was no damn secret code. I deleted the app and started over because I thought I must have missed the part where they gave me the code. Nope. Then I went to my computer and tried to set it up from there, and there on the screen was a QR code and the instruction, “scan the following QR code.” Turns out, “enter secret code” and “Go to your computer and scan the QR code” mean the same thing to the idiots who write this stuff.

And BTW I cannot get LastPass to work with the Pelican website.

End of rant

When they asked 'enter secret code'....were they wanting you to establish a new code just for when using your phone?

The worst part is...it's damn near impossible to speak to anyone for help anymore.

It's best to keep things secure but simple.
I use an encrypted plain text document to store my passwords (backed up with my other important data).

My big bugbear with the IT industry is planned obsolescence!

Translation is better now - remember the horrific engrish from imported things twenty or more years ago?

My beef is more local. I, and many colleagues, wrote procedures for various things. It drove me crazy how apparently engineering school removes one's capacity for using articles of speech. I think that it impedes readability, which is the point of a procedure. Write it as if you were saying it to someone. "...put wrench on nut..." and the like makes me want to day-drink.

Wait till chatgpt makes translators obsorete…

You are not required to use the official Lastpass authenticator and I personally don't because it sucks.

You can use Authy, Googles, and even MSFT's authenticator.

I use Authy which is a multi device fork of Googles.

Meaning Googles you can only set up on one device and need to transfer date to additional devices where Authy has a centralized DB so syncs across multiple devices.

It's a sign of crappy instructions when you have to speculate on what they mean.
I did try entering some random numbers. Didn't work.

Documentation is the last thing on the priority list when developing a product.
The writers are often not the engineers that developed the product.
It's like here write the manual. Can we get a sample of the product and time with the engineers?
No, they are busy with the next product.

I wish things like this would have a first page in the manual that says ""You probably want to do this."

And it's a simple step by step setup that 9 out of 10 people want to do.

NOT a whole lot of "what ifs" or "In this scenario these are you options."

Actually, having the engineers write simple set up and use documentation, (which is different from technical documentation) is how we end up with poorly written instructions.

For one, they think differently than the average user and two, their familiarity with the product leads to them ignoring stuff that from their perspective "should be obvious".

We always had a dedicated writer for instructions who developed those instructions from the point of a first time user.

We had that (dedicated writing group) also but they were continuously frustrated by not getting access to the engineers or the product. Our instructions eventually came out pretty good. However, in a small company looking to save the last penny I bet there is not a dedicated tech. writing group. I don't know what is done these days maybe the user manuals are all out sourced. The very large company I worked for eventually out sourced the manuals to get those people off the payroll.

This is why I don't like engineers to create end user instructions.

If we are talking about a mid 6 figure or 7 figure enterprise solution it's going to come with a team to lead the integration so documentation is less critical.

For end user products if access to the engineers is required to write instructions then, in my experience, there was little to no product management and it's a flawed product.

Engineers left to their own devices don't create end user friendly products.

It's like cars.

How often are we frustrated by a DIW repair that should be a 5 minute thing but turns into hours of frustration because of the design.

It's what we get when engineers who are only concerned with how it's built are left to their own devices.

A mechanic, whose concern is taking it apart and putting it back together, being involved in the design would yield a radically different end result.

Modern day automotive engineers should be forced to do a 2-3 year apprenticeship swinging wrenches before they are allowed near a drafting table.

They shouldn't be creating instructions and it's bad practice to let them. When I worked with the Air Force every report the engineers wrote was sent through tech editing to be turned into English. That was not so at GM.
Everything I wrote for my magazines was sent through a copy editor. I know how to write English, but it's easy to assume too much of your readers ability to follow along. A copy editor makes sure everything is readable at the level of your audience.

This sentence somehow reminds me of the parable, "A picture is worth a thousand words." Though, I don't know how to rephrase that to encompass wdfithteen's thought.

Dumb it down is all I can think of.

I will always remember a sentence from some of the first china instructions I read. It started with. "Please be to sure that oil level is at marked."

I know for a fact AI's been writing software docs for a while now as a copy editor friend of mine lost her job to one. It's not CHAT GPT, I forgot..

Slightly unrelated, but enough with the passwords..
Ring itself during camera setup told me "on the fly" that my password has been compromised and I should pick another, kinda funny.

Still, I now have a DB with about 100 passwords, no joke, from banks to cameras via car or smart scale or emails or that effing appleID.... It's absolutely ridiculous now and the varying requirements/lack of repeatability or incrementation/compromised good ones, make a common(ish) password impossible..

Work is worst of all with 15 characters, special characters, numbers, a hyeroglyph, a stool sample and a dance move, and it changes every goddamn month. I semi jokingly told my boss I was gonna have to quit soon because I am totally out of password ideas and I cannot keep them all straight. Ironically the shared password keeper at work has the worst password of all!

I'm kinda rooting for a big hack of *everything* connected, just so people stop with all the connected crap or at least it forces a better more intelligent system - FaceID isn't bad.

Last pass has been breached more than a crack house, lose and chose another one….

Who would you suggest and why...

It depends on your exact requirements; if just passwords there are good free ones out there (Keepass, etc), if you need full service, Passportal but it costs, but you get mobile and browser integrations as well as more features for corporations. For MFA; Cisco’s Duo as it has the best integrations (there is also a free version)