Posted on 11/01/2010 5:28:00 AM PDT by ShadowAce
Average people, the kind you see walking down the street, buying milk at the grocery store and frequenting Walmart, Kmart and other similar retail chains are a very fickle bunch. They are also very demanding. Not one of them would accept damaged goods willingly. If they buy a television and it doesn't work they take it back. If they buy an item of clothing and it is damaged in some manner it is sent back post haste. If they buy a piece of meat and two hours later it is green, that piece of meat is forcefully returned to the butcher (LLBC).
Yet, when it comes to computers. These same people who throw a raving screaming tantrum when a button on their new DVD player is loose will accept a computer with a faulty operating system.
Sure they will throw the same tantrums with a physical computer fault however, on the software side of things they will accept without a murmur and actually request to install the most bug ridden, virus infected and unstable operating systems in the history of computing. They will use these systems and not care that it is sending spam to the four corners of the world (why do people say that? The world is round) or some fifty odd viruses are siphoning off their passwords, credit card numbers and personal details for sale on the black market.
Even when these people know about spam and malicious programs they still allow those into their system, and live with it crashing and running slow for months. When asked why they allow this to happen they shrug their shoulders and say they do not know. Yet most of these people are intelligent, successful at their trade and are able to raise families. When it comes to computers however, it seems that their brain shuts down and they revert back to Neanderthal ways of thinking.
WHY?
I don't blame these people. As much as I become exasperated at uncle Pron Surfer or cousin Email Link Clicker when I have to reinstall their operating system for the n'th time I still don't blame them. They are simply a product of their environment. It is the environment which I blame.
The environment, created by software and service companies, that end (L)users don't know how to properly use a computer, is responsible for this sheeple mentality. These companies act on the premise that people are dumb and design their operating systems and programs on that principle. Throughout the years of this patronizing by the software companies, the average person has been trained like Pavlov's dog to accept sub-quality products.
The attitudes that people have in that computers crash, viruses and malware are a fact of life and programs are always buggy are brought about when these software companies release improperly tested software. When the end (L)user rings up to complain they are told that unfortunately this is how it is and things will be different in the next release. The customer has no other choice but to accept this and thus the brain washing begins.
If I remember correctly, the computers of yesteryear were of higher quality and far more reliable than the latest personal computers of today. The excuse that the code is more complex and does more does not wash with me. The real reason is that not enough quality control is exercised.
The design of these operating systems is also at fault. They are designed on the assumption that computer users are dumb and just want things to work without having to think. So these companies try to build an operating system which does all of the customers thinking for them. The computer is then turned from a useful, powerful and complex machine into a mysterious beige box which does nothing very well except chew up resources. It pains me to think that computers which were less powerful than a modern mobile phone could send people to the moon while modern computers, thousands of times more powerful, are harnessed into sending spam, propagating viruses and surfing pron.
I think it is a huge waste and a crying shame that people have this attitude about computer software. What can be done about this? I think that, as with everything, it starts with education. Educating people that they don't have to live with this computing situation. Educating people that a computer is more than a black box. Educating people that, like the family car, a computer is a complex machine which needs regular maintenance. Finally, educating people that they do not have to accept sub-standard software and that there are alternatives available.
That is the main reason people return faulty goods in stores. They know there are alternatives. The software alternatives are hidden and slandered by companies so the end users do not feel they have a choice. Once they realise they have a choice then perhaps the quality of software will return to it's previous level of excellence. Perhaps then, people will be thought of as valued customers, instead of dumb (L)users. What do you think?
"I get paid to support Windows, I use Linux to get work done."
.-.. .. -. ..- -..- / .-- .. .-.. .-.. / .- ... ... .. -- .. .-.. .- - . / -.-- --- ..- -.-.--
— Well—not really. You just moved the problem away from your daily experience.
This is true but now it is getting sent in to be fixed.
That doesn't make me a barnyard animal, it's what happens with complex systems and especially ones that allows the user to really screw it up, a basic premise of the whole "personal" computing movement.
As for all the wags that moan about poor computer operating systems it sounds to me that you think that the market is right for a good one. Excellent, go write one.
Yeah, didn't think so.
Sorry, but, for me, my computer is a fancy typewriter, a videogame player, and a method to access the internet. In short, it's a reasonalby expensive toy.
I did my time using DOS, and tweaking those commands to allow me to play each specific game, which required special audio and video and memory settings to do so. Windows may not be the geeks favorite program but, for the most part, it works with the games that I want to play and functions as a word processing program (typewriter) and lets me access the internet.
My attitude towards computers can best be described using a scene from KELLY'S HEROES. The command tank is disabled and when Oddball is asked by Kelly why he isn't helping to fix the tank his response is:
Oh, man, I just ride in 'em. I don't know what makes 'em work.
My attitude exactly.
There’s a reason people don’t like most computer nerds.
Exactly. Now imagine if that EFI computer had a keyboard and screen so that the average driver can affect it.
That doesn't make me a barnyard animal,...
No, it does not. It merely means you are untrained. Not a bad thing.
... it's what happens with complex systems and especially ones that allows the user to really screw it up, a basic premise of the whole "personal" computing movement.
Exactly my point--and the point of the article. Computers are not appliances. They are complex machines that should not have untrained people running them, changing them, or affecting the operation in any way.
As for all the wags that moan about poor computer operating systems it sounds to me that you think that the market is right for a good one. Excellent, go write one.
Don't need to. First, untrained people should quit modifying their computers without supervision. Second, there already is a superior OS out there. :)
Which from the looks of things may have nothing to do with computers.
It is scary what fundamental things people simply don’t understand.
People like me. I don’t care to understand the most inner working of a computer, all I want is for it to do the simple commands I ask it. When that don’t work I happily take it to people like you and tell them to fix it. Thats they’re job and God bless them! Now should they decide they want to drill an oil well, then I’d hope they call me.
My bill might be a little bigger than they’res!
Just curious: do you consider yourself smart?
LOL! Even smart people have their pet peeves.
Our expectations keep going up. In the late 90s I remember 640x480 being considered high-speed video, now 1080p is it. Going further back, I remember a Rolling Stones song taking less than 32K. It sounded pretty bad, but these days we expect a song to take several MB and sound almost perfect.
I had an experience with H.264 this weekend. I put a few movies on a daughter’s netbook for a trip, and found out it couldn’t play them smoothly. A 1.6 GHz machine couldn’t even play video without going choppy. I couldn’t dream of a 1.6 GHz machine even 20 years ago. I have to remember to make lower-bandwidth, simpler-profile versions for future trips.
Funny, I kind of figured that that's their decision to make, not yours.
Actually, I knew this...it was a sarcastic comment that was meant to reflect on the editing, or lack thereof, done on the web site’s writing.
And the Apollo 11 Lunar Module nearly crashed because of a bug in the software.
LOL! OK. Sorry. I'm just kinda fried by everything going on this week.
>I gave my extended family an ultimatum — get a Mac or I drop support. They did and now my phone never rings.
Yep, I did almost the same thing. Though I actually bought my sister her first Mac after too many instances of phone support for her and my Dad. Now they both use them I am practically never bothered.
My computer conforms to my needs, not the other way around.
After a decade and a few years of using computers, I have few problems and even fewer I can’t fix on my own. My fixes will never be up to the highly overcomplicated standards of a computer tech but its my computer and I’ll decide that.
Silly question perhaps, but is compatibility with other users (exchanging Word docs, etc.) or say, a company network an issue if I would get a Mac?
"Its actually pr0n, and its spelled this way so that it doesn't show up when someone searches the word "porn". It was introduced as a masking tool to prevent people from logging your involvement in less than reputable activities."
>If I remember correctly, the computers of yesteryear were of higher quality and far more reliable than the latest personal computers of today. The excuse that the code is more complex and does more does not wash with me. The real reason is that not enough quality control is exercised.
This is what we call rose colored memories.
I mean what yesteryear are we picking? Windows ME? Yeah, that was surely very reliable. Packard Bell clones, oh year brilliant pieces of hardware those were. Mac OS 7.X (pick any) was another steaming pile. I had to buy a third party product to try and make it reasonably stable. I’ve seen dogs in both OSes and hardware, and today is certainly no worse than before.
Yes, the world is loaded with more malware these days (which is a good reason to play on a Mac). However the OSes of today are better. OS X and Windows 7 are good OSes and appreciably better than their predecessors (well XP was eventually patched enough to be good and solid, and is much less of a resource hog than 7).
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