Search This Blog

Saturday, December 16, 2006

Fix the 486 already!

Arrgh! I've complained in the past about the online 486 requirement that you use Adobe Reader version 5 to use the online Form 486, and I've heard Macs are not supported at all.

Recently I pondered whether version 5 will be available much longer, since version 8 is due out soon.

Now I have a new gripe. I've upgraded to Internet Explorer 7, and it doesn't play nicely with Adobe Reader 5. I would say that most of the time I'm viewing PDFs, a freeze occurs at some point. I'm not talking about just the online Form 486; any time I'm using PDFs, I can expect a freeze. When the freeze happens, it usually freezes all the tabs in that particular IE window, though I can usually (not always) continue to work in other IE windows. At some point, though, I have to force IE to quit, closing whatever windows I was browsing.

The other PCs in the office haven't been upgraded to IE 7, and we'll have to hold off now. But I'm stuck with a gimpy computer just so that I can fill out online 486es. So I'm actually considering buying an entire computer that sits in the office and does nothing but fill out 486es. I'll load it with the most ancient version of IE I can find, put Adobe Reader 5 on it, and just leave it in the corner where whoever is doing a 486 can sit.

Of course, I'll have to put it in our network's DMZ, because I won't be able to get current security patches for it, so it will be very vulnerable to a variety of malware.

How much could it cost to hire some company to create an online form more similar to the 470 and 471? I say the FCC should let USAC suck another $20,000 out of the fund to get it done. Since they'd just be building a new front end to the SLD database, I wouldn't think it would cost much more than that.

No comments:

Post a Comment