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= F.U.C.K. - Fucked Up College Kids - Born Jan. 24th, 1993 - F.U.C.K. =
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Com-pyoo-ter
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A few years ago, a very small percentage of society actively
used computers. Today, thousands of people purchase computers for
their home or small business to do a multitude of tasks or for home
enjoyment. In the past, it was TV's, stereos, microwaves, and other
inventions that changed our lives. As more and more people began to
use them, more and more people learned about them. The average family
has a TV, stereo, and a microwave in their house right now as well
as a Personal Computer.
You take any active member of that family and ask them to
program their VCR to tape a show at 1:39am on the Tuesday of next
week, and five seconds later they have that done, and are asking if
you want it in SP, LP, or ELP. Take them to the stereo and tell them
to pick 5 CD's, put them in, and make the stereo play them randomly,
in order, reverse order, or skip certain songs, and they will have
it done. Now, ask them to add a program to Windows and create an
icon for it. Hours later after several calls to Microsoft, they are
still having problems. Why is that?
Millions of Americans own personal computer now. Each system
worth thousands of dollars. More expensive than any other item in their
house usually. Even thought they spend all those dollars on this new
machine/toy, they don't take the time to learn how to use them. They
would much rather jump on the bandwagon and learn the programs that
they actively use. It is kind of ironic that you have a machine that
is based almost 100% on logic, is being used by a person based on
1% logic.
Working in a computer store, I now get to deal with more of
these people. Not only do I deal with their problems, but I have to
try and guess what they did to mess things up. These people run into
a problem and the first thing they do is call a computer store, the
manufacturer of the software, or whatnot. No need to break open the
manuals and see what is causing the problem. Let someone else do it
for you.
I think that everyone who owns a computer should know the basics
about it. After paying thousands of dollars for a computer, why not
pay fifty bucks for a class that teaches the fundamentals of PC's?
Welp, here is a good lesson to begin with. The following applies to
IBM compatible computers and their users.
DOS. An 8 bit operating system. When you boot your computer, DOS is
loaded. DOS is loaded before windows, before everything else.
It stands for Disk Operating System. It is a stand alone, operating
system. It requires no other software to launch itself from. It
uses a "command line" environment, no point and click bullshit.
Windows. A program, NOT operating system, that is a platform to launch
other programs off of. Windows boots up because your AUTOEXEC.BAT
and CONFIG.SYS tell it to(*). It gives you a "point and click"
environment to run your applications and organize stuff. If windows
has a problem, it crashed to DOS because it requires DOS to run it.
OS/2. Operating System 2. This is kind of like windows, but a little
more reliable. You have icons representing applications in a
point and click environment, but it is a stand alone 32 bit
operating sytem(*). You do not need any other software to use it.
Disks. Disks commonly come in two forms. A "five and a quarter" or "three
and a half". This refers to the size of them. Both are used to store
programs on, and can be written to so as to copy software from one
computer to another.
CDRom. This is an optical disk with information on it. Most CDRom drives
can not write to a CD. These are really good for programs that
require a lot of space for information. Encyclopedias, factbooks,
games with a lot of graphics etc.
Knowing that, how can you explain some of the crap that goes on
regarding computers today? Why do people demand softare made for windows?
DOS applications can run through windows believe or not. Why do people
go to stores, buy software, come back the next day saying "this isn't
for windows, I need windows" acting like no one uses anything else?
True, windows is popular right now, and used by millions. Millions of
computer illiterate people I imagine. These are the people that buy
software without reading the system requirements first. Yes...99% of
software packages tell you what it needs to run on the side or the back
of the box. Why are so many programs returned for these reasons: Mac/IBM,
DOS/Windows, Disk/CDRom, etc. It tells you on the front of the box exactly
what is in it. "IBM 3.5" or "IBM Win 3.1 Compatible CDRom" or whatever.
Anyway, so people can't read. Forget that. Now, they get home
and can't install it. They choose to go with software that is known to
have many problems, especially compatibility, and then bitch to the
store that it won't install? Computer companies shouldn't have to hire
several people full time to answer questions about their problems.
Software companies already do that because they know people will have
problems with their software. Don't bother the store who sold it to you
because they don't have the author's their to trouble shoot for you.
Why are people so insistant upon having any/all programs on
CDRom? More and more people find software, read that is on disks, and
don't buy it because it isn't on CD. Granted, games or applications that
require 30+ megs shoud be on CD, and they are. You won't find the KGB/CIA
world factbook on disk. Too big of course. That is why they made CDrom.
But more and more people are complaining that these little 1 and 2 meg
programs aren't on CDrom. Either way, they are going to have to install
it to their hard drive from CD OR disk, so why does it matter?
All these people that own these computers, and that rely on
windows have a problem. If I were to delete ONE line out of their "autoexec"
or "config" file(*), they wouldn't know what to do. It would take them hours
to get windows up and running again. That is so lame. If you are going
to rely on this program, you should be familiar with the operating system
that is running it. Simple DOS commands should be natural. Knowing what
each line in your config files should be the first thing you learn so
that when you can't load windows, you can go and figure out what is wrong
with it and fix it. Yes, fix it yourself. It isn't that hard.
Even though it is simple to learn, a majority of computer users
don't know about their system. They don't use common sense when it comes
to using their machine. If you have a problem, the first thing that should
come to mind is reading the manual. At the store I work at, it is quite
common to find someone returning an entire system because "it wouldn't
work". As someone opens the box to make sure everything is their, the
first thing that they pull out are the manuals, still shrink wrapped.
80% of the answers to your problems can usually be found in the books
that comes with software or your system. All it takes is the time to read
that book, and experiment. Take the time to poke around in applications
you have never played with. The most that will happen is that you will
delete something or mess up an application. Just reload it and try again.
I could go on and on about the yuppies that come into the store
and do this and that, but I won't. Suffice it to say that a majority
of computer users these day are ignorant when it comes to using them.
Quit relying on other people in computer related matters. Don't expect
an employee to know all 5000 pieces of software in a store. Don't expect
them to know all about networking when they sell mostly individual machines.
Don't expect each and every employee to know about Winfax Lite and how
to set up a fax init string for it without first asking if they are a
windows user. Bottom line: Use your head.
* Don't know what that means? You need to learn more about the machine
in front of you.
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