Computerized Confusion

Townhall.com ^ | December 25, 2007 | Thomas Sowell

[BikerJoe]

However, trying to find a cellphone that is just a phone is very near impossible.

Every time someone shows me their fancy new cellphone with all the gadget capabilities, the first thing I ask is "Can you still make calls with it?"

[MarkL]

There is a solution. If you want one with all the bells and whistles you have to learn how to ring the bells and blow the whistles. Otherwise you are wasting your money.

Sometimes you simply don't have a choice when it comes to the "bells and whistles." Have you gone shopping for a cell phone lately? I'm still using a 4 year old cell phone because I don't want all the nifty new stuff available. In fact, when it died, even though I was eligible for a new phone on my plan, I opted to use my "cell phone insurance" to get an exact replacement phone, once I was able to locate one at a Verizon store. No web access. No GPS, Text messages shut off. And as a bonus, all of my old accessories, like extra, high capacity batteries worked: I didn't have to buy new ones, saving me about $100.

Mark

[mainerforglobalwarming]

My mother just got a big screen tv and home theater system. It will probably take me two years to explain to her how to work the remote control. I think she bought the thing just so she’d have an excuse to call and nag me.

[don-o]

when someone who needs an account password changed, but only uses that account for email, sends a request for an "email password change," I respond with "password changed and tested."

It recently took seven days to get a password changed at my work. Of course, our IT is outsourced.

[blastdad51]

“every new model must have dozens of new features “...rampant featuritis. I hate it.

[kitkat]

Have you heard of the Jitterbug phone? I’m considering getting it. They advertise that it doesn’t have all the things you don’t want, just a phone.

I’ll send you the info on it sometime later today. Too short of time right now.

[kitkat]

***The problem isn’t computer engineers or even designers, imho... the problem is the sales & marketing people who think that every new model must have dozens of new features in order to justify the title of “new” (and to justify the inflated prices that management wants to charge!)***

And the fact that with computers they change things so fast they can’t write the instruction books, print them, and distribute them fast enough to keep up with the changes. And when’s the last time you actually got a user’s manual with a new computer?

[Calvin Locke]

There's thing thing call multi-tasking, and from there, you really have to use set theory, as applied to the the most basic of elements, including functions.

I really miss analog on/off volume controls, myself...

[kitkat]

Photobucket won’t work for me to use pix on FR anymore. Their instructions on correcting the problem were full of computer terms I’ve never even heard of, and I’ve had computers for 25 years and am self taught. Anybody know of another storage place for my pix?

[Bob]

There is a solution. If you want one with all the bells and whistles you have to learn how to ring the bells and blow the whistles. Otherwise you are wasting your money.

Many times you can't get something without the bells and whistles.

BTW, you can blame the marketing department for that - They're the ones who came up with the product spec; the engineering department just implemented it.

[Free State Four]

Make sure to have a kid available at all times

I don't know what I'm going to do when my teenagers leave home. Sit on my porch and read books by sunlight. :)

[Bob]

Can you post their instructions here? Somebody should be able to explain it to you in simpler terms.

I use imagecave.com and haven't had any problems with it.

[Rummyfan]

Thomas - I just turn the gadgets over to my fourteen-year-old and she does it for me!

Actually quite proud of myself this Christmas: I got a MacBook as a Christmas present for me and managed to get on-line all by myself! But it’s weird going to the Mac world after so long on a PC....

[Christian4Bush]

bump

[Kaslin]

Photobucket still works for me I think

Can you see this?

I also use ripway.com

[TheRightGuy]

I had a hi tech watch I liked, but it had an hourly beep that could not be disabled, and an alarm that defied all efforts to disarm.

Cruelly, its piezo transducer was at exactly the pitch where there is a 6 dB notch in my hearing. (Firearms).

AMEN!!! Been there ... done that. The alarm on mine spent so much time ON, that shortly before its demise, the watch was going through a new battery a week.

[DUMBGRUNT]

one instruction book is for several different models and it is up to you to decide if the instructions are for the one you own or not.

A special place in the lower depths of hell await the producers of multi model manuals!

[Rummyfan]

They're NOT IT experts. In a lot of cases, they're lucky if they are able to turn on the computer.

LOL! How true. I have a family member who cannot - SIMPLY CANNOT! - comprehend how to add attachments to e-mails. She has to ask a coworker to do it for her every time!

[KayEyeDoubleDee]

Photobucket won’t work for me to use pix on FR anymore. Their instructions on correcting the problem were full of computer terms I’ve never even heard of, and I’ve had computers for 25 years and am self taught. Anybody know of another storage place for my pix?

What's wrong with Photobucket?

I've always found it to be very straightforward.

[BfloGuy]

I bought one of those indoor/outdoor digital thermometers last year. I'm generally satisfied except for one rather annoying feature -- it beeps incessantly whenever the temperature is within 5 degrees of freezing.

The manual explains this as an "ice warning". Now, that might be desirable in California or Georgia, but I live in Buffalo. The temperature here is within 5 degrees of freezing for 6 months of the year.

I got in the habit of stuffing the damned thing under a sofa cushion for most of the Winter.

Nowhere in the instructions are you told how to turn the "feature" off. Finally, just last week, I stumbled on a tiny paragraph explaining that when the unit's set to Channel 1 (default), the ice warning will sound. Aha! You've got to set it to another channel (no simple task).

Why didn't they just tell me?