Computer Problems sorted out? Don`t be too sure about it!
Are you unhappy with FAQ websites, help functions and various support responses? And do they seem to you like Victorian moral tales to make us lesser mortals all work harder and become better users? Or even worse, do you feel like an abused end user, like an involuntary and inexpensive consultant to the computer and software industry because your time and effort spent on describing your problem is probably going to help the company in question more than yourself?
Mysteriously changed settings, especially in MSWord; error messages which prove to be mere hallucinations of the CPU; capricious real error messages which interrupt some important work you are doing; quirky problems with software installations that even puzzle computer boffins and presumptuous auto-starts of programs I didn’t even know existed, just to name a few, are FEPs or Frequently Encountered Problems.
Out of three software programs I have installed during the past two months, two do not work at all. Mind you, they are all shareware programs. Admittedly, they are not on my priority list right now but I dread to think how much time I will have to spend when I need to make them work. My ignorance is definitely partly because I haven’t taken the time to busy myself with the handling properly, because they are incidental tools for me and I have lots of other things on my plate which I consider more important.
Fortunately, the Windows XP operating systems hardly crash anymore or freeze my computers (I am using both the Home and Professional editions). Gone are the days when MFN (Microsoftus Functionius Nixibus) as I used to call it, would flash peremptory error messages at me, warning me, for instance, that „Windows had caused an error in section…The operating program will be shut down“. And, as we all know only too well, when the XP operating systems were much improved with most bugs sorted out, Billus Gattus Monopulus introduced his new operating system Vista, with even new flaws. Naturally, I gave VISTA a miss after checking it out on a friend’s computer and I am testing various Linux systems on an old computer now.
In all likelihood, I am going to switch to Linux for a reason: IT companies of all sorts
have been trying to exert ever more control on content and some even spy on our computers. No problem, we can protect ourselves effectively with a whole range of programmes or hardware. What we cannot protect against is some sort of compulsory storage of our most intimate data on external servers as it is being discussed now. Microsoft is keen to introduce a new operating system that would not even require you to install software on your computer. All your software and data would be on a Microsoft server. George Orwell would have been envious of this idea!
One is left to wonder, how this issue will affect society as a whole and schools and universities in particular. Will Microsoft also play a leading role in education as software generously provided online would probably be subject to some sort of censorship?
Incidentally, is there one single person on earth who is making use of online hard-disk-drives right now?
(Excerpts from my diary)
1 Kommentar
November 8, 2008 um 10:36
[...] Good riddance, VISTA – Bien venido big, big, big Brother! No problem, we can protect ourselves effectively with a whole range of programmes or hardware. What we cannot protect against is some sort of compulsory storage of our most intimate data on external server as it is being discussed now. … [...]