Written January 2007
by Cliff Feldwick
I had such a wonderful rant started on the excesses we now take as everyday, but decided that a few warnings on computer glitches that have become significant should lead - then maybe to rant, to rant.
Thanks to a reader and unfortunate recipient of this problem for the heads-up: if you are running QuickBooks and receive a message from Microsoft to "upgrade" to Internet Explore 7, for lord's sake, don't! Unless you are running QB2007 (and few are yet) you probably have just imploded your QuickBooks. Their "solution", if you call, is to sign you up for a year's technical support, and then tell you there's nothing you can do except upgrade to the 2007 version. Now that's chutzpah! As an extra precaution that Microsoft will not push this through while you are napping, turn off the full automatic upgrades. Go to the control Panel, click Automatic Upgrades, and choose "notify me but do not automatically download or install them". Then you can pick and choose which ones to do.
The next warning is for people with Dell desktops, especially with Maxtor hard drives. I have been seeing a distressing number of dead or damaged drives lately. This is unfortunate, because I like Dell units as a rule (and have one as my main office machine - practice what you preach). How do you know if you have a Maxtor drive? Right click on My Computer, choose Properties, then Hardware, then Device Manager. You will see "disk drives" near the top - click on the plus sign. It will reveal the make and model of drive.
What to do if it is a suspect? Probably the cheapest remedy is to get an external drive (yes, this is what I said last month in "Cheap things you can do" - but it's still cheap and you should still do it). Use this to back up your files, or get a program such as Norton Ghost and back up an image of your whole drive to the external. Keep it up to date - it's your life out there.
OK, on to the New Year's rant!
Ridiculous Consumption
It was probably the Macy’s ad – the one for the chocolate fountain. Yes, just like the caterers use for dipping your fruit into a molten lava flow of chocolate. Don’t you own one? Shouldn’t everyone? After all, if it’s right for those parties, shouldn’t it be right for yours? Never mind that you’ll have to deal with all the leftover chocolate, before it hardens, and the clean-up of such a contraption. But there it was in the pre-holiday sale ads.
We have gone past conspicuous consumption to ridiculous consumption.
The next sign that we've lost sight of reality was the recent review in the Washington Post for a new Mercedes sedan, the CL550. Remember this is a sedan (four adults and some luggage, not the 1st Armored Division). Outfitted with a decent engine and the latest electronic safeguards, this model lists for $99,900. Yes that's right - a symbolic $100 less that a hundred grand. Of course, the model as tested went over that. For a car. A perhaps very nice car, but a car. No closet space, no half bath, not even a chocolate fountain.
Just to get a perspective, I went on the web and looked up some real estate. Rochester, NY has had some hard times because of Kodak layoffs, but my daughter lives there so I have some perception. For $99,900 you can get a 4 bedroom, 2-1/2 bath Colonial that doesn’t look bad at all. How about farmland? Can’t get much more rural than Kansas. For $89,900 you can get 80 acres with a 30’x60’ pole barn, two ponds and “good hunting and good fences”, in now quiet Coffeyville, Kansas (site of two raids by the Dalton Gang in 1892).
What does this have to do with technology? Just that this area, because of its high income levels, warps thoughts on what’s needed or suitable. Palm Pilots were once high tech – now only Blackberries or phones with full e-mail capability are considered. Same for laptops, TV’s, and other equipment. There is an engineering discipline called “appropriate technology” that looks at not using high tech solutions in areas (rural, poor, or desolate) that won’t support them. Easier, often low-tech things will work and make a tremendous difference without costing an arm and a leg. Try using that perspective for your home or business as well. If a computer is for kids who will be doing homework and e-mail (or for your own basic word processing), you don’t need DVD authoring capability. Maybe you just need a new filing cabinet and a few hours organizing instead of a new database program. Remember that simplicity in computers usually means fewer problems and software glitches, and costs less.
Maybe then you could even afford that chocolate fountain.
Cliff Feldwick is president of Riverside Computer Consultants, and fixes problems caused by complex computers and programs, when not sitting on a mountaintop wrapped in simple clothes. He may be reached at 410-880-0171 or at cliff@feldwick.com.