I was in vacation last two weeks. My macbook was deliberately left at home, because I want to rest from the world of HiTech — that was vacation, right? Indeed, I left the HiTech world, but dive into the hard world on ordinary user. As you may assume I had access to computers and to be honest at most times against my will. As IT guy (do not confuse with It girl) I was forced to help people around with their computer problems.
The computer world of ordinary user is hard. The first problem is viruses. That was nightmare! Being *nix adept for a long time I completely forgot the “virus” word. In the hard world viruses are around. The anti-virus solutions are diverse, can’t live with each other, need constant internet connection to update their bases and internet connection supplies you with new viruses again and again. Having no internet connection is death — the first USB drive with doc/xls/jpg files from you friend and you have a trojan.
The second problem is LCD monitors. Yes, LCD monitors — that simple. Impressing number of users set 1024×768 on 15/17 inch displays while the native resolution is 1280×1024! You can imagine the quality of the picture! I simply can’t understand that. Is the ordinary user blind? Don’t they just care? And finally some of them buy modern and stylish widescreen monitors and set 4:3 ratio. Hard, hard world :(
I was simply happy back to my laptop! Wish you only positive impressions during your vacation :)
3 Comments
Yeah, viruses are epidemic. And anti-viruses are not a panacea. Indeed, they only give a false sense of security. On home Windows machine, I’ve migrated to a *nix-like limited user accounts model, which seems more sound. Although, you need an Internet connection anyway to install security updates.
I guess what you’re trying to say is that you like being a mac user :)
Yes, I happy to live in *nix world, but I’m trying not to tell this, rather let you feel the horror of not being IT person nowadays.
Guys, both your comments are about viruses :P Viruses are just one and well known problem of Windows platform among others.
Mac user can set monitor resolution to 1024×768 at new widescreen 15.4′ macbook pro easily — why not?
Do you feel scary?) What other examples of common mistakes in using computers you know?