Computers are A Devolutionary Scam

glennmac · Jan 28, 2002

There is something far more useless and frustrating than a teenager or a boxblade--modern computers. I am not being sarcastic when I say this: computers have gone backwards in throughput function for the average user...... I returned to Macs after 5 years working on PCs provided by my employer. Researched for two months. Spent almost $4000 on "state of the art" hardware and software. Result: everything is slower than my 6 year old Mac. What a ripoff! All I do is word processing, powerpoint and surfing. On the bible: my 6 year old Mac with Wordperfect is far faster in execution than Word X on Mac OS X, all brand new programs. The lags and delays are shameful.....Why is this? I believe it is because software has become an aburd exercise in bloatware. I had to download a new driver for my new HP inkjet printer. 28 megabytes! 28 megs for a lousy (and I mean lousy) printer driver. My first computer didnt even have 28 megs of hard drive--and it handled printers and word processing just fine. To run Word on OSX, they recommend 256 megs of RAM. 256 megs for a lousy word processing program. My old 6100 didnt even have that much disk and it runs Wordperfect, a superior word processor, faster......I could spend the rest of my life exploring the features of Office, and never understand half of them and never have any use for 90% of them........This whole computer thing is a phoney cycle: more speed, more RAM, more disk, quantum leaps in code bloat, requiring more speed, more RAM, etc.--all resulting in worse price performance.... The first thing we should do is kill all the programmers (Shakespeare).

GlueGuy · Jan 28, 2002

<font color=blue>The first thing we should do is kill all the programmers</font color=blue>

Uh oh. I'm leaving now. /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif

MChalkley · Jan 29, 2002

glennmac - Um, can I be spared if I agree with you? /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif

I remember the amazing capabilities of the first Mac with 128k of RAM and one single-sided low-density floppy drive. That was before the days of the Internet, of course, but that machine would do an incredible amount of work, especially considering the resources it had.

MikePA · Jan 29, 2002

Wait for me, Glueguy, I'm right behind you. /w3tcompact/icons/eyes.gif

Mosey · Jan 29, 2002

Even as another programmer, I can't do anything but agree with you! Software these days is way too complicated, full of useless features that no end user has a clue how to use. I use the latest version of MS Word at work and I hate it. They force people to do too much with the mouse. I prefer to use the keyboard (I can edit stuff faster in UNIX using VI or Emacs than I can in Windows using Word). I agree that it's all a scam designed to keep computer manufacturers and software companies in business.

But, on the flip side I guess I can't blame them all for wanting to stay in business. If everyone was like me, they wouldn't be selling anything anymore. My home computer is a Dell 486 SX running at 33MHZ running Windows 2.0. I use WordPerfect 5.0 and much prefer it over MS Word. It does everything I need it to do except access the internet, so I do that at work. But, even if I had a better computer at home I feel that the internet has a lot of improving to do before I'm ready to shell out $20/month for it.

I like that term "bloatware"! It reminds me of what my neighbor used to say about his welding skills. Admitting that he didn't really know what he was doing, he called it "quantity before quality". I would say that same statement applies to modern software.

StoneHeartFarm · Jan 29, 2002

glennmac

Our new house is getting closer to move in date, so I had the phone service hooked up. I wanted to keep my current phones and have new lines added out there so on move in day I can just go out and plug everything in.

The day the phone lines went in, the phones here went off. I called repair and they promised to fix it. The next day I called again and repair told me it's a SOFTWARE problem. The SOFTWARE won't let you have 2 residence addresses on the same phone bill. /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif It took 2 days for the programmers to get it straightened out and almost another week for me to do damage control with my clients who couldn't figure out why my phone lines had been disconnected. (That's what the message said, not "changed to a new number", but DISCONNECTED /w3tcompact/icons/mad.gif)

The good news is they fixed it, but, when I went out to hook up my lines, the interface was about 14' from the point where the wires come out of the house. So, I called repair and they said they'd come out and move it, no problem /w3tcompact/icons/hmm.gif

TODAY, the repair guy showed up here (the old house) and said he had an order to move the phone service and where did I want it moved to? /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif I looked at the work order, and it had the phone numbers for the NEW house and directions to this one. /w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif

Apparently, the software now thinks the new numbers are here at the OLD house. At this point, the odds are pretty good that at least SOMETHING about this is gonna be messed up. I'm betting that I'm gonna have to move the blasted interface myself, or make more frantic cell phone calls to repair to get phone lines turned on. (Insert emoticon for "impending doom").

The moral here is: Only kill the programmers if you can get the drop on em, otherwise they'll make your life miserable. They can do with the push of a button what it'll take them 2 days to straighten back out.

SHF

cowboydoc · Jan 29, 2002

I completely agree with you that computers are a scam. The only thing worse than buying a new car is buying a new computer. As soon as you buy it it's worth half of what you paid for it and there's already something bigger and better.

TerryinMD · Jan 29, 2002

Et al....

Yeah, that's right!! /w3tcompact/icons/eyes.gif

As you noticed, the systems/programming guys threw in the towel!! /w3tcompact/icons/king.gif Smart move!! /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

I work in a systems development shop and am constantly amazed at how the current programming methodologies are employed. /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif The young turks always want bigger, better, faster to get the work done. Yet, they never use what they currently have to it's fullest extent. Nor, do they wish to understand the simple process of tuning their code to get optimal performance. Nope, just add more stuff.... just buy this handee-dandee software, etc, etc......

To be honest though, the current desktop systems and software DO provide you with some great features. Are they necessary for the average computer user? No, not really. But, just like having that one tool that you MAY need to use at some future date, just in case something breaks or a friend needs some help...... /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

Terry

Buck · Jan 29, 2002

Glennmac,

I don't know about you, but I found that the program: "Attorney on a Disk" pays for the computer and the program in the first hour or two.

As a "Mac" Liberal, maybe you don't have access to such a program; To me it is the box scaper of the computer industry. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Buck

glennmac · Jan 29, 2002

I'm only picking on my Mac because it is what I have. I still like Macs much better than PC's. The Macs are merely frustrating to use. PC's drive you into a mega-cursing, Jack Nicholson axe-wielding paranoid insane fury. This may be the real reason Bird is considering moving from Frost, Texas, USA--he may have chopped up his abode when trying to install XP.