Re: nyt article: computer litteracy
Hugo Vanwoerkom wrote:
Hi world!
Interesting article on growing distance between the computer-savvy and
the illiterates with fancy systems:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/05/technology/05VIRU.html
register:register
Whereas there's some truth in the issue of illiterates running computers
("my cupholder broke!"), the article doesn't even mention that the vast
majority of modern support issues are not user-related so much as faulty
technology on the majority of computers in use.
If you have a red button on the wall that says "Don't Touch - Bad Things
Will Happen", the button is going to get touched by every third Joe that
comes along. That's human nature. That's MS-Windows with its virus-prone
architecture.
If you have a red button on the wall that says "Don't Touch - Bad Things
Will Happen", and then have a locked case over the button that can only
be opened by "authorized" personnel, you're going to have much fewer
people touching the button, and those that do are likely to know what
they're doing. This is Mac OS/X and Unix and Linux (and perhaps other
OSes) (assuming the OSes are decently configured).
I don't blame my clients/customers/users nearly so much for the support
load as I blame the pointy-haired bosses that insist on putting Windows
on the desktops even though his support staff is saying it's time for a
paradigm shift, nor nearly as much as I blame Microsoft for their design
decisions (and "aggressive marketing" *cough*) that has gotten us where
we are today.
Yes, some blame on illiterate users; much more blame on faulty technology.
--
Kent
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