Tag Archives: Mystery

Magical disappearing AutoCAD 2017.1 crash information

In preparing to write something about the AutoCAD 2017.1 non-subscription-only update, I came across something slightly strange. Google AutoCAD 2017.1 crashes and you will probably see something like this:

autocad2017-1crashgoogle

What happens if you click that link? Nothing useful. You’re just taken to the landing page for the Autodesk Knowledge Network. The Google cached version of the link takes me to 404 land. Searching within the Autodesk Knowledge Network doesn’t produce relating to the crash in the original link, which seems to be language-pack related. The search wasn’t entirely fruitless, because I did discover that 2017.1 breaks linetype preview images for those of us who prefer a light user interface. But of information about the crashes, I see no sign.

On Twitter, I see a similar story. Some weeks ago, the @AutodeskHelp account reported:

autocad2017-1crashtwitter

Click that link (which points at a page called AutoCAD-crashes-when-you-install-AutoCAD-2017-1-English-Update-on-computers-with-installed-language-packs.html) and you will pay an unenlightening visit to Page Not Found World.

I’m baffled. It’s almost as if somebody at Autodesk has tried to hide something about this all-important first new-regime update and not done a very good job. Nah, can’t be that, there must be an innocent explanation.

If anyone has any information on this or any other 2017.1 crash or instability issues, please let me know.

Bug watch – identify this insect

No, not the Bug Watch, just a bug you can watch. Does anybody know what this insect is? It is the second one of these we’ve found in our home in Western Australia. It’s very active and it smells horrible.

YouTube Link

For those of you who can’t access YouTube, here are some photos of the bug:

Mystery Bug

A higher resolution version of the above picture is available here. This is the bug about to be given its freedom:

Mystery Bug

On release, it buried itself in our lawn:

Mystery Bug

In 25 years in Australia, I had never seen one of these until recently. Any ideas?