Number 261 - February 2005

The Naked Truth
Burton Shane, Danbury Computer Society
I have just read a wry article on the tribulations of installing a USB peripheral on a Windows ME system. The article was hauntingly familiar, recounting the irritating, humorous, and inevitable problems that anyone who has wrestled with the PC will immediately recognize.    I have spent the last 20 years earnestly promoting the empowerment and enrichment that PC literacy brings, but I fear I have failed, in my enthusiasm, to present not just the truth but the whole truth.    If my car proved as bug-ridden and difficult to maintain as my PC, I would have long since have taken it to the junk yard, and waited around for the satisfaction of seeing it compressed into an inert cube of lifeless metal. If my car, so much as hesitates in starting or accelerating, I go directly to the dealer and demand perfect performance. My mood is darkened until my car is restored to problem-free operation, waiting at the curb for its next mission.    My PC crashes, slows down, locks up, and I patiently re-boot, tweak settings, and re-install software and hardware until I can again limp along with some degree of regularity.	The simple truth is that my PC is not like my car. I can live without my car .The PC is more like my wife. I could live without her, but I wouldn't want to.    There are thousands of Windows applications. I am going to try them all. I load them, learn them, try them, and sometimes I even keep and use them. They are creating new applications faster than I am trying them. It is a never-ending story.    Then there is hardware. I can download free demonstration software, but hardware costs money. Whether it works or not. I buy peripherals that I actually need (or believe I need). Which brings me back to the USB article that started this. I have a USB TV tuner, a USB portable hard-disk, and a USB CD burner. They all work, but sometimes require re-booting.    USB sucks. Actually, USB will be pretty good when complete compatibility of computers and peripherals and software is achieved. As this desirable state will likely not occur before the sun goes super-nova, we will probably limp along with the problems until fire-wire (the next high-speed serial standard) becomes more wide-spread. Maybe fire-wire will work as smooth as silk. Don't hold your breath.
Number 262 - February 2005