quote:
Originally posted by VoidMain:
You want to pay to have your computer fixed that is fine but there is nothing to stop anyone from learning a little about it themselves and not pay anyone for it. Now it is entirely possible that people are born with a gene that makes them lazy and even more possible that they are born with a gene that makes them stupid.
I agree with you that people don't work for free, nor should they. If you don't want to help someone fix their comptuer, then don't do it. You'll hear no complaints from me.
My point is that people who don't understand computers aren't "dumb." It's a complicated world and lots of people don't want to learn how to fix their computers, or have no aptitude for it. There is nothing at all wrong with this.
Other way around, in fact. It is called "specialization." People focus their time and effort on things they enjoy and/or do well. When this happens, the overall welfare goes up.
It's a damn shame that Microsoft, of all companies, should wind up being the leader in user-friendliness. That is a HUGE commentary on the incompetence, insularity, arrogance and isolationism prevalent within the "geek," i.e., computer specialist, community.
If the geeks weren't so out of it, Microsoft would fall like a ton o'bricks. Especially after that abortion they call Windows XP. But they haven't fallen, and that's because Linux is dominated by arrogant geeks whose answer to ordinary usability problems by non-specialists is to call them idiots.
I once took a college class on the history of World War II. The professor talked about how, when the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, they were greeted with wild enthusiasm in places like the Ukraine, which had been literally starved to death by Stalin. Within months, the people learned that the Germans were even worse than the Russians.
Stalin, truly one of the most hideous murderers in human history, wound up
rallying these poor wretches! You see, the Nazis had classified Eastern Europeans as animals fit for slavery and death. This is how German snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. Not that I wish they had been smarter; I mention this as a point of strategy and tactics only.
At the moment, this is how I look upon the Linux crowd. There is widespread dissatisfaction with Microsoft, and it grows with every price increase, "upgrade" and power play. What do the Silicon Valley pinheads do in response? They set about to blow a collossal opportunity by projecting hostility and arrogance toward people who just want to use their computers as opposed to fall in love with them.
Now
that, children, is the very definition of
idiocy.[ August 05, 2002: Message edited by: willysnout ]
[ August 05, 2002: Message edited by: willysnout ]