That's all I want!
The article topic is inconsequential, but this excerpt sums up how I have always felt about technology in general and computer use, to be specific:
"In both cases, people don't think about the individual pieces of the package, he said. They just think about the tasks they want to do, such as listening to their music or getting e-mail on the go." (CNET News.com)When I bought my first computer, a CompuAdd 8088 with 20 megabyte hard drive and monochrome monitor, all I wanted to do was to write term papers for college. To do that I had to learn an awful lot of stuff that I really didn't want to know but needed to complete the one task I had. It all worked out to my advantage in the long run, I suppose, but I wonder how productive I would have been if I could have spent more time on doing what I wanted to do.
Despite over 20 years of advancements that have increased productivity I am still a slave to the machine. For example, every day I have to clear the browser cache and cookies on my work computer before I can start the several programs needed, otherwise nothing works well. On a regular basis everything needs to be wiped and reinstalled because security protocols prevent disk defragmenting or the programmers of one software package make an update that prevents other applications from working.
Since I made the recent decision to become a "user" rather than someone who actively takes an interest in how my computer works and the tweaks that can be made to it I've had a lot more fun and have had fewer headaches. Now why couldn't the technology work like that in the first place?
There should be no need for the user to worry about tasks to maintain the technology. The user should simply have a product that works. That's why I'm eager to switch to a Macintosh computer. Each time that I start this machine a reminder pops up that I don't have Windows Update active. Mostly it reminds me of the last update that kept this expensive critter from doing what it needs to do.
