Sometimes that picture just ain't worth a thousand words.

"Help! The browser-based application crashes once in a while for no reason. Here's a screenshot of the error."

Oh yes, very helpful, that. Chock full of information.

I wrote back to him telling him the next time the user has this error to click on "En savoir plus sur les modules complémentaires..." because the stuff there might actually be able to help me find the problem. Don't get the wrong impression here -- French is one langage I've mostly forgotten, but Windows is Windows in any language. I can't read a single Korean character but Installing and setting up a Korean-language Win2K3 "Advanced" Server in is a piece of piss.

Anyway, a week later I got an update.

No Dr Watson info or perhaps a log, but he was so helpful that he cut and pasted all the text from the box.

Into Word.

There are 329 pages (Arial, 12pt, single-spaced) of:

00000: 0d 00 0a 00 0d 00 0a 00 ........
00008: 55 00 6e 00 65 00 20 00 U.n.e. .
00010: 65 00 78 00 63 00 65 00 e.x.c.e.
00018: 70 00 74 00 69 00 6f 00 p.t.i.o.
00020: 6e 00 20 00 64 00 27 00 n. .d.'.
00028: 61 00 70 00 70 00 6c 00 a.p.p.l.
00030: 69 00 63 00 61 00 74 00 i.c.a.t.
00038: 69 00 6f 00 6e 00 20 00 i.o.n. .
00040: 73 00 27 00 65 00 73 00 s.'.e.s.
00048: 74 00 20 00 70 00 72 00 t. .p.r.
00050: 6f 00 64 00 75 00 69 00 o.d.u.i.
00058: 74 00 65 00 a0 00 3a 00 t.e. .:.
00060: 0d 00 0a 00 20 00 20 00 .... . .
00068: 20 00 20 00 20 00 20 00 . . . .
00070: 20 00 20 00 41 00 70 00 . .A.p.
00078: 70 00 a0 00 3a 00 20 00 p. .:. .
00080: 43 00 3a 00 5c 00 50 00 C.:.\.P.
00088: 72 00 6f 00 67 00 72 00 r.o.g.r.
00090: 61 00 6d 00 20 00 46 00 a.m. .F.
00098: 69 00 6c 00 65 00 73 00 i.l.e.s.
000a0: 5c 00 49 00 6e 00 74 00 \.I.n.t.
000a8: 65 00 72 00 6e 00 65 00 e.r.n.e.
000b0: 74 00 20 00 45 00 78 00 t. .E.x.
000b8: 70 00 6c 00 6f 00 72 00 p.l.o.r.
000c0: 65 00 72 00 5c 00 49 00 e.r.\.I.
000c8: 45 00 58 00 50 00 4c 00 E.X.P.L.
000d0: 4f 00 52 00 45 00 2e 00 O.R.E...
000d8: 45 00 58 00 45 00 20 00 E.X.E. .
000e0: 28 00 70 00 69 00 64 00 (.p.i.d.
000e8: 3d 00 33 00 37 00 36 00 =.3.7.6.
000f0: 38 00 29 00 0d 00 0a 00 8.).....
000f8: 20 00 20 00 20 00 20 00 . . . .
00100: 20 00 20 00 20 00 20 00 . . . .
00108: 4c 00 6f 00 72 00 73 00 L.o.r.s.
00110: 71 00 75 00 65 00 a0 00 q.u.e. .
00118: 3a 00 20 00 32 00 30 00 :. .2.0.
00120: 30 00 36 00 2d 00 30 00 0.6.-.0.
00128: 33 00 2d 00 30 00 36 00 3.-.0.6.

Sometimes I hate French people as much as I hate fucking Windows' use of UCS-2. Not that I truly hate the French. If he'd been from the Netherlands I'd've hated Dutch people today.

After half an hour converting this mess into something remotely legible I found the problem is a damaged ActiveX control which he should have seen himself had he bothered to look in Tools: Internet Options: Settings: View Objects.

Checking the ActiveX objects is always one of the first things you do for a browser-based client which uses them and had he done so I wouldn't've had to go through the tedious process of manually cleaning up a hex dump which, in turn, took so much time time that I forgot about my layout and strategy and the damned Choson came in and whacked my Hittites into total submission so I have to start a new round of Age of Empires.

Give me my Root Cause 17 already!