Out of order.

[answerbok]

Every single question on this page is a pc problem or complaint.. Is there any hope for technology? are we dumb or are 'they' nasty?

[Elle]

'They' are nasty.

[j2buttonsw]

The technology is relatively simple and usually very user friendly (afterall, it is people who have to use it at the end of the day: or even at the beginning of the day). What is the big problem of the day? A virus which is malicious code designed to upset the technology. There is a simple fix for this problem which has been avoided by everyone who has kept up to date with Microsoft Critical Updates. If the worst comes to the worst you will have to rebuild your system which is easy now most manufacturers have restore CDs (which can easily be created using Ghost). It is just data loss which is the most upsetting and backing up data it the most critical thing you should do when you get a computer.

[doristwonk]

I suspect that j2buttons has never written a programme in any sort of computer code or language, otherwise his/her view would be less rosy. I can never understand how Microsoft (or any other software house) ever produce anything that work slightly let alone at the level they do work, bearing in mind the size of the software files. My experience using Basic, MSDOS, DRDOS etc. a quarter of a century ago lead me to have much respect for the people who try to do it. However I have absolutely no respect for those who try to sell a product that is imperfect, as most software is. Oh yes it is, otherwise there would be no need to issue patches and updates etc.

[sft42]

You never heard of product re-calls then? Food scares? Nothing in life is perfect and despite all the bench testing that is done on every item regardless of what it is before it hits the market place it's only once it's there that the real end users put it through it's paces and hidden faults can be found.......we're only human remember and nothing is (or ever will be) perfect!

and for anyone who remembers basic

10 Print "YOU SMELL!"

20 goto 10

Ah, for the days when this was the height of programming.

[Cetti]

I think the word dumb is a bit harsh xyzzy, but if we were all that bright we wouldn't need anyone to help us - and then what would buttons, cupra, lisaj and all the other computer whizzes that we depend on do all day?

[anthomson]

I sympathise with PC users, I have been using PC's for the last twenty years and still struggle to keep my machine running. If anything problems seem much worse now, mainly because we expect our PC's to do so much more - including being networked to virtually every other PC in the world. I write software but have come to appreciate that it is impossible to write a 10,000's of line of code that are totally bug free and impossible to test for every conceivable environment it will be used in. Hopefully products like .NET should eventually help by simplifying the way different pieces of software can interact.

[lisaj]

Technology is, unfortunately, perfect. It does exactly what humans tell it to do and never deviates from that. The problem lies in the fact that humans are far from perfect and can neither create software, or use it, reliably. People like myself simply have sufficient experience and knowledge to mop up the mess. And I don't know what I'd do without AB - probably do mork real work.

[woofgang]

As total non techie who knows lots of techies, it does seem to me that at least part of the problem is the mindset of people who develope the stuff. We haven't yet got to computer as washing machine or computer as microwave where the workings are invisible to the user and no special expertise is needed. We still seem to be at the stage of computer as meccano kit, where (for some people), part of the enjoyment is solving the problems and adding the fixes. I know that I have just made an inflammatory statement and it is not intended to be offensive to anyone. My sig other is computer literate, we have owned a computer since the dragon 32 was new and hot and he still spends a significant portion of each weekend sorting out the glitches we have had during the week.

[doristwonk]

Prior to my retirement I was with a large multi-national company as Quality Assurance and Technical Services Manager for far more years than I like to remember. I can tell you kind people that the introduction of any new product, in or out of the computer world, is "Marketing led", that is to say the Marketing people call the tune. Their aim is to get the product "to market" faster than is humanly possible. The main reason for this is to fufill budgeting commitments made out of ignorance of reallity. The only things to prevent them universally launching totally duff stuff are legislation (which is virtually non existant when it comes to requiring software to be reliable), and competition (which in the case of the worlds biggest producer of software is similar). So non MS software houses are up against problems. They are trying to make there software compatable with a very dodgy system that is always (like politics) going to be better next time. As I said above, but was mis-understood, I am amazed that anything works. My reference to basic and DOS was to try and indicate that in those days we wrote our own programmes to do as "we" wanted rather than change our systems to do as MS's programmes demanded. Granted we did not write bloatware, but then, we were not trying to be "all things to all people" (a la MS).