You have me thinking of something at my work. You click on a link to enter a number, and it defaults to alphabet instead of numerals... Computers are only as smart is the fallible mortals who create their programming.
Computers will faithfully execute their software, no matter how poorly designed and written. That's the wonderful, and sometimes frustrating, part of them. They are obedient to a fault, but they are not mind readers. But Google comes close... Like governments, software that is powerful enough to give you everything you want, can also take it all away.
In a coding class I took long ago, the professor handed out a cartoon featuring a frustrated programmer staring angrily into his screen and saying to a colleague, "Darn it! It's doing what I'm telling it to, not what I want it to do!"
Harumph. I remember those days. Then some clown invented autoincorrect. Now none are obedient because their programming tells them they are mind readers. No, computer. I'm not trying to say that. What I'm trying to say is exactly what I typed. Thank you for your input, or not. Ah, the good old days. Now they don't do what I want to do, they do what the programmer wants me to do.
Had that happen recently on a train related website. Typed in what I was looking for. The 'program' didn't like my request and shot back with 'zero results found'. One would think a programmer would be smart enough to program that ANY of the words in a search SHOULD show some results. That way the end user could click on the results that closely match his/her original inquiry. But that's just me I suppose. .
Right on @mtntrainman! So many websites botch this, along with construction of their data. You're looking for an SD-45, but they instead have entered SD45 and you see nothing, or you enter wheelset and they have it cataloged as wheels, and on it goes. My favorite puzzler are hobby supply sites that beam with pride that they use Google as their search tool ..... and it suggests buying what you want elsewhere from a different hobby supplier! Don't these guys ever test drive their own websites?
Be careful what you ask for... sometimes, especially after getting too many results, we would like to be able to narrow it down to including all of those terms... of course, we could use keywords for logical operators like _and_ _or_ _not_ etc. In effect programming the search engine for our desired results... Or we could turn everything over to Google, and relax. It knows more about what I want than anyone (including me!) Resistance is futile... It's much more fun (if not productive) to temporarily call your computer a derogatory name, perhaps one questioning its ancestry and/or intelligence.
Even at 65+, I enjoy computers. Despite my age, I was the department "Power User" into the latter years of my career, surviving three system upgrades and software changes wrought by different suppliers. Our inquiry systems remained archaic and data was stored in several places, so I got pretty good at working inquiries, dumping the multiple outputs into Excel and working the messy result into something usable. Had a home computer back in the early days and loved messing around with it, along with programmable calculators (a TI-58 and HP 12C). I actually kind of miss those freewheeling days, though with my aging brain, I doubt I'd be much good at any of it today.
I designed embedded computers for harsh environments with demanding/unique form-factor requirements, including unique interfaces for internal and external subsystems. I also designed electronic interfaces and subsystems implemented in FPGAs. We used both Windows and Linux computers for design and verification. We started out in the mid 1980s on proprietary Unix minicomputers for schematic capture and PC board layout & routing. Then we migrated to Sun workstations running SunOS Unix in the early 1990s for those tasks and FPGA logic synthesis/simulation, then later migrated to Windows and Linux. I enjoyed FPGA logic synthesis and simulation/analysis for design verification. It was fun, and I was well paid for it, but I saved up and retired by choice at 57, which is much more enjoyable. Do I miss it? Maybe 20% of it; the rest I'm glad to do without. I'm no longer bound by schedule and budget. Well, maybe still a little by the latter.
That's not even the worst-case scenario. I've seen a few instances where searching "SD-45" would be interpreted as "SD -45" and return everything with 'SD' except SD45s. Truly, the ways to mess up in computing are infinite.
I had to look up FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) to see what it is and I think I now understand. Wow, you were in deep -- amazing stuff to a non IT/non EE guy like me. By the time I retired some years back from a business career in supply chain, headcount reductions, incessant oversight and an impossible workload brought me to a decision to check out. I miss the fellowship, but that's all.
Yes! My wife taught me that and I still do that sort of thing with Internet searches ..... but with great care.
Try having or using a two or three part last name. I'm Dutch. The way women use there family last name - husbands family last name makes me wonder how my former wife does hers. I was the first followed by seven the last I heard. Plus the one that got her pregnant before I met her.