A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch
This month I’m going to rant, criticize and complain just a little. The other day, my wife and I were in one of the home improvement stores and I thought that it would be a good time to pick up a new water filter for our refrigerator. I went over to appliances and told them I needed a new filter for a Whirlpool. He immediately asked me which of the nine filters I needed. Of course I had forgotten to memorize the filter number so I found our refrigerator on the sales floor and told the salesman, “One to fit that model.” Naturally, it was the wrong size filter. When I went back to exchange it, I found out that a different model year takes a different filter. What does all that have to do with computers and electronics?
It got me to thinking about some of the things I really hate about computing. I’ve probably got 30 or 40 different USB cables in my junk box in the closet. Every time you buy something that is USB supported, you get another cable. Why is this? It’s because each manufacturer has their own proprietary plug. They have to include a cable because none of my other 30 cables will fit the darn thing. I recently got a new cell phone. Same manufacturer, different model. You guessed it. I’ve got another USB cable in my collection. Wouldn’t it be nice if everything had a standard plug and didn’t have the cable included? Think of the money that could be saved. Wait a minute! Then they couldn’t sucker people into paying $20 for 3 dollars worth of wire.
Another thing about electronics that makes me made are the End User License Agreements (EULA). I’m one of those persons that read them pretty carefully before installing anything on my computer. My complaint isn’t the fact that they are written by lawyers. I can use the internet to identify the legal terms. I have yet to find a EULA that can be read full screen. Instead they write them in a little window that usually covers about a tenth of my screen. I really think this is done to discourage people from reading the agreements. Just get them to click “I agree” and get it over with. I wonder how many people downloaded Google Chrome before the EULA was changed? Do you suppose Google changed their EULA because someone finally read the EULA and told others what it said?
I can live with SPAM (I usually don’t even see it) and I don’t mind being bombarded with internet advertisements (I can always go to other sites). I really hate it when websites pop up a window asking for information that they will probably never use. For instance, the Des Moines Register wants to know my age, sex and country. They then store the data in a cookie on my computer. When I tell them that I‘m 22 year old female, I get the same advertisements as the dirty old men get. Why waste my time?
My last big frustration is forwarded e-mails, which I usually just delete. Should I really have to click page down 2 or 3 times to read the cute story or learn about the latest internet scare? Besides, I think it would be a good thing if the government made business e-mails pay a 10 cent tax. I bet we’d all get a lot less Viagra offers.
That’s enough ranting and complaining. Next month I’ll write something useful for the newsletter. By the way, did I mention that the two water filters had two different prices? Does that remind you of anything computer related?