I just purchased a new computer. After several years of mostly faithful service, my old computer died from exhaustion. There is nothing unusual in either event. I’ve owned at least 20 computers ever since they first hit the market. In fact my first computer was a Heathkit, a build-it-yourself model with vacuum tubes and 64K of total memory. I could use only about 15 or 20 cells in the first spreadsheet on the market (a Peachtree) before running out of memory.
So what’s so different about my new computer? Well, virtually everything is different. I haven’t tested every feature, but it’s faster and I’m sure it can do more than all the other 20 computers combined. Yes, there is no doubt that today’s models are a huge improvement over the earliest models, and the price is far less. I even got $105 off the advertised price with two coupons.
But there are a few creeping issues that bother me. First, it was built in Chihuahua, Mexico. Now, I have nothing against Mexicans. Their workmanship is first rate, they work for less, and much of the lower costs are passed on to me. Outsourcing is an economic fact of life that I can live with—but only within limits.
For starters, it took FedEx 5 days to move the package from Chihuahua to El Paso, a distance of 230 miles. I know Mexican roads are not the best, but 46 miles per day is slow even by Mexican pickup truck standards. Then they took another 9 days to lug the package to Florida. I doubt if the US Postal Service ever took that long to deliver a package even during the Pony Express days. So outsourcing does pose some transportation issues.
Next, I had to call the manufacturer about a technical issue. I used their toll-free number and was hooked up to someone whose spoken English was—to be kind—squeaky to nonexistent. I’m guessing he was somewhere in Turkmenistan or Pakistan. He referred me to another toll-free number, and after 3 more connection transfers, I looped back to him. He again referred me to the same toll-free number. I tried to explain that I had already done that when the call got dropped. After two more loops, I called an old buddy in Georgia. Between the two of us we used our 1960s-era electronics know-how and solved the problem.
Next, my old MS Office would not work on the new model. Then I learned that MicroSoft wanted another $150 to put me back in the business of doing what a computer does best—process words and numbers, store them, and present them in pictures and videos. They no longer give credit for having purchased every version of their software since it was developed. Nope. Now they want full price—unless you are a student. OK, I did not try to pass myself off as a student. But I will try (and did) to squeeze today’s computer geeks out of whatever bit of info I can get for free. And I found out from one of them that MS Office has competition. It’s called Apache OpenOffice. It’s free and can be downloaded at www.openoffice.org. Here are their words straight from their website:
“Apache OpenOffice is the leading open-source office software suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more. It is available in many languages and works on all common computers. It stores all your data in an international open standard format and can also read and write files from other common office software packages. It can be downloaded and used completely free of charge for any purpose.”
I am passing this information on as my random act of kindness for today. Also, I’ve contributed enough to Bill Gates for one lifetime, and believe he and his heirs can get by in perpetuity without more help from me or from others.
Now I have at least a week of study to do plus I’ll likely make a few more calls to Pakistan before I get back to doing what I do best—haranguing AD readers with words, rhymes, and clichés suitable only for those whose sensibilities have been bludgeoned into a zombie state similar to my own.
What a riot, Mr. Phillips...that Microsoft cares less about customer loyalty and they do not fear receiving a D- for "working well with others". I use open office as I got tired of paying the ransom money Microsoft wanted for allowing me to open docs and works that used to open on an older system that I paid good money for. I also got tired of paying extra for O.S. that constantly crashed and was by design defective and obsolete the moment I bought it.
I first started in the mid eighties programming on the old Commodore 64 hooked up to a SMith Corona electronic typewriter with a serial port (remember those?)for a printer and computing was exciting then. I do not know what happened when I switched to Macs and MacII then to Windows...but little by little I lost interest playing a game of cat and mouse with avoiding crashes and blue screen errors. Now I am fed up with XP and only saw glimpses of happiness with windows 98 and windows 7. Now I am back to Apple macbooks with the latest O.S. and am starting to enjoy computing again.
I am taking the long way around saying how much I enjoyed this article and feel the need to say thank you for taking me on that road back in time to the present with that annoying accent that has not even once fixed my PC issues to date but the American Companies using these call centers are not doing us any good.
Thank you for a most enlightening article. I have had my bouts with foreigners trying to speak English. When I was using ViaVoice for the Mac, all of the outsourced customer service reps were Scottish.
After the partition, Pakistani and Indian schools didn't teach English anymore, so the people picked up English anyway they could, primarily for business purposes. When I was in Pakistan, most people spoke English, but with a very strong accent. I have also experienced looping forwards. It is the modern Catch-22 of customer service.
Computer geeks have long bemoaned the cost of software upgrades and created open-source applications like Linux and Apache for free. Unfortunately, most people don't know about them and they get little use despite of their advantages. I'll look into Apache.
When I mistakenly upgraded my iMac to Lion from Snow Leopard (operating systems costing very little to upgrade) I lost Office 2004 because it was no longer supported. Apple could no longer put up with Microsoft's predatory upgrade pricing and created iWorks instead with all of the same applications, but with different names. You can still open any Word or Excel or PowerPoint file and work with it, much easier, in Pages, Numbers, or Keynote, for as little as $49, and save them in all the Microsoft file formats… .doc, .xls, .pps
, etc., to be used for a long time without having to upgrade.
Isn't computing fun? At least we don't have to put up with some of the problems we had earlier with viruses that killed computers long before for their time.
Many thanks for the information. Cannot imagine a new computer but have to recognize that mine (3rd Latitude 620) is not only growing scarce, it is hopelessly obsolete. These are surely the kind of adventures aging folk do not need, even when it does challenge our brains and keep us young.
I would like to know what you ended up buying and how you made the decision. And yes, it is very frustrating that Word has to be bought separately and expensively. It would be different if it was cheap.
L
A scientist/philosopher explores the mysteries of existence in a highly personal quest for answers to life's ultimate questions, forging a bridge between sterile science and spiritual values -- a scholarly work for all who seek wisdom, truth, true fr
Histories of the world are generally written to either celebrate technology and science, or to herald doom. My book examines the path of the spirit in the onward rush.
This book presents a narrative story of one person's journey of transcendental Awakening and Enlightenment as guided by his two Sage companions. It is grounded in Zen Buddhist and Taoist perspective and uses the I Ching as its structural framework. T
