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Monstermunch

Monstermunch

Monstermunch

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Joined
7 Mar 2005
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Eating PI
Don't know whether or not it's just me but are pc's getting harder and harder to live with. I'm no genius but i've always been around pc's and people always turn to me when something goes wrong with theirs. Cos I use mine every day i'm used to solving the problems as and when they arise but majority of the population can't.

Lately though problems with connectivity and with windows seem to be dramatically increasing and I worry that if this trend carries on that people will decide they are no longer willing to suffer the problems with their pc "not doing what it's supposed to" or "not working at all" and will decide that they're not worth the hastle.
 
With the technology at the level it's at, problems these days are, a lot of the time, down to one thing - lack of user education, and the widespread adoption of (cheap) broadband internet. Not totally understanding what they are doing, what they are clicking on, how to secure their machine, why they need to secure their machine, what securing their machine actually means, how to browse responsibly... I could go on.

Addressing this problem is the real modern day technology dilemma. A large part of the solution will come from evolutions in the user interface, and terminology. As for where the rest comes from... well, I'm not the man to know. I'd be very rich, if I were :D
 
I doubt people would be willing to decide that they are not worth the hassle, because as difficult as it may be for some to use it, it is an essential part of current life. E-mail use is becoming more and more common when compared to regular mail due to reasons such as speed. Video conferencing is an extremely useful feature as well, which I make ample use of.
As far as companies go, cutting out computers is just not feasible. For home users, it isf easible to do so, but not at all practical. Word processing, and the benefits the internet provides are way too many for people to not bother with computers at all.

As for increasing problems, i've found that most problems can be solved by a quick look on google and are relatively simple. As Otacon said, people do need to know what they are clicking on and what installing some random piece of software which just pops up may entail.
 
Sudden said:
I doubt people would be willing to decide that they are not worth the hassle, because as difficult as it may be for some to use it, it is an essential part of current life. E-mail use is becoming more and more common when compared to regular mail due to reasons such as speed. Video conferencing is an extremely useful feature as well, which I make ample use of.
As far as companies go, cutting out computers is just not feasible. For home users, it isf easible to do so, but not at all practical. Word processing, and the benefits the internet provides are way too many for people to not bother with computers at all.

As for increasing problems, i've found that most problems can be solved by a quick look on google and are relatively simple. As Otacon said, people do need to know what they are clicking on and what installing some random piece of software which just pops up may entail.
Click to expand...

Yea I know what you're saying and I too use google to solve most problems but the vast majority of the population wouldn't even know how to start or even how to use google correctly to find the answers they are looking for. I just fear that if someone like sony looks at the market and decides to add internet/email/wp etc to their PS's then the market could feasably drop rapidly for pc's cos I get the feeling that the gen pop aren't really interested they just want it to work!
 
A lot of the current crop of security issues with Windows will be resolved in Vista. Because no longer will average joes be running as Administrator! :) There will be a much finer grain of control over permissions than there is today. With XP Home it's a matter of being either Admin or "Limited User".

Microsoft should have done this with XP (the first desktop/home version of NT) but they wanted to play it safe and maximise compatibility at the time with Win9x - because XP was the OS to perform the migration from Win9x to Windows NT. Times have changed, thankfully.
 
People will still enter their account password and accept the install of the latest piece of Spyware though. Because users are stupid.
 
After my brief experience with wireless broadband, i'm a firm believer in the router software blocking the connection until some form of encrytion is added. There are too many unsecured signals flying around these days from users with no idea of what they're doing.
 
Just one example that happened only last night (which initially may have prompted this post) was that a close friend has NTL with set top box in lounge and a wireless router (which I know nothing about).

I am with NTL but previous house owner has kindly put ethernet sockets in each room of the house for me :D

"could you come round and have a look at my PC cos my internet has stopped working". Well, arrived at the house and one cup of tea later it was fixed - some piece of spyware had changed the IP address for the network card and hence had no connectivity.

:rolleyes: I THINK THAT THEY SHOULD RUN CLASSES IN SCHOOL FOR WINDOWS PROBLEM SOLVING :rolleyes:
 
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