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March 2008 Archives
March 1, 2008
Why don't computers work?
The computer is a strange thing. Beyond the myriad of things it does to make our lives easier, there is something that truly baffles me: the ability to spontaneously stop working. I, and others like me, have been tearing their hair out for years when their perfectly good computer has suddenly, and for no reason, decided to "glitch", which is a cute word designed to disguise the fact that the computer did something WRONG.
I know, this has been said a thousand times before, but this is Saturated Market, and we thrive on adding to the din of voices.
Let me describe for you the final straw: I was watching a concert DVD on my laptop because the tv room isn't heated, and it's winter in Canada. Now, my laptop is only 4 months old, and I spent a lot of money to have some extra power built into it; computer geeks have told me it's a good computer, and it runs some heavy duty programs. So you'd expect it to handle a task that is performed by the progressively inexpensive dvd players of the world. Not so much. It got stuck and stuttered a couple times, and eventually froze. With the loud music stuttering. I tried everything; mute button, alt-f4, ctrl-alt-delete, closing the computer...I'd have unplugged it, but alas, it's a laptop. It did finally turn off a minute after I pressed the power button. It then turned off again when I tried to turn it back on.
Now, playing DVDs is something my 5 year old computer I replaced with it was able to do. That same DVD, in fact. But beyond that, there's no reason for a new computer to just crash. And this wasn't exactly the first time. This computer already shows glitches and mistakes and problems. I know there are plenty of people who will point out that's because of Vista (that's another entry altogether), but let's stop lying to ourselves: Apple or PC, 1980 or 2008, computers still stop working. For seemingly no reason. And that's what bothers me the most.
How did we let this happen? Technology companies, faced with unfathomable market competition are releasing products years before they should be, full of problems. And they release "patches" after the fact. And once it's finally almost perfect, they come out with the next generation (XP to Vista, anybody?) and the cycle begins anew. And of course, a patch won't fix a computer that just doesn't want to work. My parents seem to be cursed with getting lemons.
I'm still baffled by the fact that when something breaks or doesn't work, it's for seemingly no reason. Computers come back from shops with the problem completely unresolved; techies write it off as a "glitch"; normal users assume they've been "hacked" or they just used it wrong. Show me a broken part. Show me a system where if something goes wrong, it gets fixed. I'm unimpressed by a little message that says "notify us about the problem" and never gets resolved. And how did we get duped into the idea that when it stops working well, we should just get a new one? These aren't cheap bits of plastic, they're expensive pieces of technology! I refuse to tolerate something that costs this much and fails this often.
Would we tolerate this in any other industry?
Would you buy a car that had to have bits installed in it every week, or that broke down once a month without a single part failing?
Would you buy a house that was still having doors and windows installed while you lived in it (referred to as security updates)?
Then why buy a computer and software that doesn't work when you first get it, and keeps breaking?
Until next time,
JW
