Click on the picture for a larger version. This is what the Rand Corporation saidthe computer would look line in 2004. I was not supposed to be able to afford one.
"OK," says the nice man from India. "Now that we have the computer off, disconnect the power supply, and ... uh ... do you have a screw driver?"
Yeah, that's right. I'm still trying to get this new computer to operate as sold.
Never mind that I don't have any any of my old web "favorites," earmarked on this computer, and never mind that I cannot remember all the passwords I have for all the things that ask me for passwords. Never mind that the new computer requires a different USB cord for the printer, which I still haven't acquired. And never mind all the software that I have had to load on and reconfigure for Vista, or download new and pay for too.
I expected all that.
What I did not expect is that the damn computer speakers would not work out of the box. Come on people!
Long story short, after about two hours on my knees, (and did I tell you I have a pulled groin muscle which makes such movement very painful?), and after turning complete control of my computer over to a nameless, faceless man in India (no, I do not even know what city he was in), and after undoing screws and pulling wires out of their sockets inside the computer (I kid you not!), I am told that the problem is that the machine is defective (maybe a defective wire to the front headphone jack, or maybe a defective front headphone jack) and they will call me back after they figure out what to do about it.
Wonderful!
Now I know they will call me back. And I suspect they will send out a guy to fix it. And I am sure he will do a good job.
All the same, right at the moment I would like to "sort it out" in a very primitive way.
Or at least charge them for my time, which is adding up very quickly. And my time is not free, unless I give it. And I did not give it; it is being taken from me. And at the end of the day will I even get an extra free year of service from this? Not a chance.
But what are you going to do? Such is life in the modern world, where global commerce and global chaos are the thinnest wire away from each other.
I could scream at the poor soul in India, but he did not make this defective computer (it was made, do doubt, by some thick-thumbed halfwit in Malaysia or maybe El Salvador). In fact, he is trying to help me. He was very courteous, and I was very patient and we parted on good company.
But I am still not a happy camper. And, just to put a little meringue on the pie, I have not even started on my son's computer which is infected with more viruses than an $8 Tijuana hooker. His computer needs to be completely wiped clean and reformatted.
But that, as they say, is another day.
On the upside, back in 1982, I was part of an organization that spent well over $100,000 buying an IBM Series/1, which is a 386 computer; the kind of thing we toss on the scrap heap now. What global commerce has give us is not just the frustration of computers too complicated to fix, and multi-sourced from 50 countries, but also computers that cost less than a brake job on a Ford Explorer. I suppose every thorn has its rose.
..
Yeah, that's right. I'm still trying to get this new computer to operate as sold.
Never mind that I don't have any any of my old web "favorites," earmarked on this computer, and never mind that I cannot remember all the passwords I have for all the things that ask me for passwords. Never mind that the new computer requires a different USB cord for the printer, which I still haven't acquired. And never mind all the software that I have had to load on and reconfigure for Vista, or download new and pay for too.
I expected all that.
What I did not expect is that the damn computer speakers would not work out of the box. Come on people!
Long story short, after about two hours on my knees, (and did I tell you I have a pulled groin muscle which makes such movement very painful?), and after turning complete control of my computer over to a nameless, faceless man in India (no, I do not even know what city he was in), and after undoing screws and pulling wires out of their sockets inside the computer (I kid you not!), I am told that the problem is that the machine is defective (maybe a defective wire to the front headphone jack, or maybe a defective front headphone jack) and they will call me back after they figure out what to do about it.
Wonderful!
Now I know they will call me back. And I suspect they will send out a guy to fix it. And I am sure he will do a good job.
All the same, right at the moment I would like to "sort it out" in a very primitive way.
Or at least charge them for my time, which is adding up very quickly. And my time is not free, unless I give it. And I did not give it; it is being taken from me. And at the end of the day will I even get an extra free year of service from this? Not a chance.
But what are you going to do? Such is life in the modern world, where global commerce and global chaos are the thinnest wire away from each other.
I could scream at the poor soul in India, but he did not make this defective computer (it was made, do doubt, by some thick-thumbed halfwit in Malaysia or maybe El Salvador). In fact, he is trying to help me. He was very courteous, and I was very patient and we parted on good company.
But I am still not a happy camper. And, just to put a little meringue on the pie, I have not even started on my son's computer which is infected with more viruses than an $8 Tijuana hooker. His computer needs to be completely wiped clean and reformatted.
But that, as they say, is another day.
On the upside, back in 1982, I was part of an organization that spent well over $100,000 buying an IBM Series/1, which is a 386 computer; the kind of thing we toss on the scrap heap now. What global commerce has give us is not just the frustration of computers too complicated to fix, and multi-sourced from 50 countries, but also computers that cost less than a brake job on a Ford Explorer. I suppose every thorn has its rose.
..
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