To Spoon-Feed or Not to Spoon-Feed
Do everyone a favor. The next time you hear one of those moron futurists tell you that 90% of the country is going to have a personal computer at home in the next five years, kick him/her in the . . . for me (“Don’t Call Us,” April 29).
PCs are really a load of crap (and I have one). You would think that manufacturers would have come across with something that is bulletproof. With all the things that can go wrong with a PC (and that usually do), it’s a wonder the consumer has maintained the growth rate the computer industry has enjoyed for the last couple of years.
Computers are fascinating, which is the reason the public has bitten the bullet. It’s amazing that home computers have survived as long as they have considering the obstacles that most of us have to hurdle to get them to do the things that manufacturers claim they can do.
Profit margins down to a sliver--gee, too bad: That’s the way most of us live our lives every day. It’s too bad Apple isn’t in the position that Microsoft is today; the world would probably be a better place.
Computer companies spend fortunes making computers faster and hard drives bigger, but it doesn’t seem that anyone is making any inroads toward making the computers usable to the mass market.
I am a user--I just want to use the thing. I want to be productive. Spending a great deal of my time trying to fix things doesn’t seem to make much sense.
STEVE BLACKBURN
Rosemead
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First of all, kudos on the insightful, thorough and timely article on tech-support woes of recent times.
In my experience, there are two types of people: computer users and computer losers. The first variety is the type who will find the solution to a problem without whining, without calling tech support. These people have high self-”user esteem,” which is to say that they believe they are capable of solving the problems. Most people who purchased computers before they were marketed so heavily in the past year or two had this mentality, since buying a computer was a personal choice, not one driven by fad or peer pressure.
The computer-loser type complains and whines when technology isn’t spoon-fed to them like their favorite (and also highly marketed) television shows, movies and fast food. Look, how can we expect these companies to be omniscient with regard to a user’s latest foibles?
I believe that technology is an adventure and it’s not always going to be fed to us. Sometimes we’re going to have to figure it out on our own. Companies can then spend more of their time and resources giving us valuable advances, better manuals or easier interfaces.
I say, support be damned! Let the people read their manuals.
JEFF SAWADA
Van Nuys
emoter@aol.com
Cutting.Edge@latimes.com
