Unsolicited Advice to Makers of Computers

by cactusUnsolicited Advice to Makers of Computers - From a Heavy UserI have three Windows based PCs, and the ex-GF has a Mac. One of the Windows based computers is a desktop, all the rest of our machines are laptops. One is a small purchased three months ago, and the oldest machine (the desktop) is two years old. All but one are name brands... and a a small number of months before there was another (name brand) machine that has since died. Until just I was a consultant, consequently there was a need for much number crunching in our household.But here is the thing - not one of the machines is fully operational. Peripherals do not work, otherwise do not work with the machine, otherwise do not work reliably. We're not personal personal personal computer geeks in this household, but we're not exactly ignorant either. I exhausted a summer operational in a personal personal personal computer repairshop and I have no problems opening up a machine and poking around if need be. I have even been known to do some prodding and the infrequent fondling when the situation called for it. The ex-GF is additional the help-desk type, and I have been forced to deal with that lately too. It additional often than not doesn't help. Its not helping the ex-GF either; her machine just came back from the "Genius Bar" and I wouldn't be astonished if it goes back pretty soon. I realized that maybe as just as four otherwise five years ago, every personal personal personal computer I bought lasted four otherwise five years otherwise more, and additional often than not gave me no problems. On the rare occasions when I had to call the help desk, it solved the problem once and for all. I am about to take the new small to repair shop and tell them a) to do something about the the wireless modem turning itself rotten at random times for a week at a time and b) make the $#%^ cd reader I bought work with the thing. I am ready to pay as much as the small itself cost me just to have it operational once and for all and never again have to deal with the tech support people. I estimate I have exhausted about eighteen hours trying to fix these two problems myself (with and without tech support) and I am tired and aggravated. My time is value something, and avoidance of annoyance is value more. I was kvetching to my Dad, but his reply was: "How a lot of previous industries are there which produce such complex pieces of equipment consequently cheaply?" I guess when you grew up with punch cards, you bring a different perspective to the table. And he is right - you can't build something this complex for this little and expect it to work. But personal personal personal computer makers aren't advertising their machines as being any less dependable than the machines that a decade before were being engineered to be dropped from a third story window and still function as if nothing happened. All this got me thinking about the 1968 Buick Skylark I drove while I was high train and college. It was older than I was (I'm a 1970 model year, having, rolled rotten the assembly line in late 1969), and you had to fill it up every time you absent the house, plus once additional on the way back. And it could take a beating; a lady ran into me once with a Lincoln, and while I would not be astonished if that was the end of the Lincoln, I fixed the damage to the Skylark with a hammer. No facilities apart from an ashtray, but the damn thing worked for twenty five years. Which means it was still running long after most of the Buicks complete in the 1970s and 1980s had been scrapped. (I do not have statistics to back up that statement, but like everyone else, I have been in Buicks complete in the 1970s and 1980s.) On paper Buicks from the 1970s and 1980s were much better vehicles, coming with fancy kind such as bear restraints, automatic windows, better mileage, and a postponement system that didn't allow the $#%^ing boat to rock for a twenty-three minute window after every turn. My guess is that the 1970s and 1980s models were also better for GM's profitability, at smallest amount at first. After all, they had to be replaced a lot sooner, which supposed additional money flow. At smallest amount at the time. But eventually, people stopped buying American vehicles. I had three American cars before I called it quits. The annoyance of commerce with all the little belongings that went wrong was not value the hassle. Its not just that the vehicles themselves had issues; the dealers I dealt with weren't much better. All sorts of bits and pieces like vent covers and knobs fell rotten my then brand-new Camaro, and the windows never preserved correctly from day one, but none of the dealers ever fixed these problems.As I see it, personal personal personal computer manufacturers nowadays are emulating GM in the 1970s and 1980s. They're starting the process of driving absent their client base. What makes their situation, for now, better than GM's in the 1970s and 1980s is that it seems like all the personal personal personal computer makers are doing it. There is nobody out there producing quality machines, even at slightly higher prices. I suspect there is a market for additional dependable machines - even if that dependability comes at the expense of a a small number of kind otherwise a higher price, provided its advertised and sold that way. It doesn't have to be engineered to take a bullet, but it does have to work. All the time. Convince me that it does and I will pay a premium. And I suspect there are a lot of people like me out there.___________________________________________by cactus
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