You may hit "send" when ready, Gridley...

Herewith, the text of an e-mail sent to Trados support:

I don't know if this e-mail will actually be read by anyone, but it's worth a try. After all, I did spend over US$500 for a product whose COGs cannot run over US$10, and which does not work as described in the accompanying documentation.

After installing the software, attempts to use Word 97 (on one machine) or Word 2000 (on another) yield me a very pretty "-{}-" string in my Word file, and nothing else.

There does not seem to be anything on your self-help support site that describes how to deal with this, though I was able to finally glean the fact that - despite what the documentation says and the README does not say - I don't need TW4Win2K.dot to work with Trados.

I was also able to find a pointer to a set of patches (which might address the problem... or might not... but I'll grasp at any straw after having spent nearly 10 hours trying to get your software to work), but alas, it turns out I need to petition someone at your shop for access, which I did last night via e-mail. Apparently, this is not an urgent issue for you guys, as I have heard nothing back from you, despite your having had a full business day to address the request.

Guys, I've been using PCs for well over a decade. I've written software, marketed software, and reviewed software over that time, and I've got to tell you: I kept getting told that Trados was a step up from products such as Deja Vu and SDLX (both of which I own and use with no problem), so I took that step. After my recent experience with your product, I am beginning to regret it.

We'll see if this gets any response, though it is past closing time in Ireland.

Cheers...

A new world record!

Drew's moving out also signaled the "moving" of his DSL service, which we shared. Soon after he announced his relocation, I called to get DSL on our line.

Well, the fellow from the phone company was just here and after a few minutes of tinkering, called me to tell me that we were all set up.

I calmly unplugged the DSL modem from what used to be Drew's line and plugged it into ours. I changed the user name and password in the router, and clicked on "Connect."

As evidenced by this post... it worked!

This was probably about the most trouble-free "christening" of DSL service I've ever heard of. (And to think it happened to me!)

(I better shut up, before the Evil Stepmother Department gets wind of this.)

Cheers...

P.S. I mean, like, the break was so short I didn't even have a chance to be unable to get at the Web for something I need. Oops!... I said I'd shut up, didn't I.