inbetween

"Die you stupid computer"

I heard that almost every single day at work for two years. That and a lot of staff hissing at the computer. I never really understood it. Computers are not stupid. They aren't dumb. The have no soul, no spirit, no intelligence.

"Why do you hate me you stupid piece of crap?"

But people who don't understand computers don't understand that a computer is just a machine.

Is your car stupid? If you get confused and make a mistake with your car, people die. All it took was one "typo" with the gas and break pedal to for nine people to die. But we don't blame the car. We blame the person driving the car. His automobile does not belong in a prison. He should have known "right for go, left for stop" before he was let loose on an unsuspecting public. But I digress.

"My computer ate my report and now I have to type it all over again and..."

But the report was never saved. A missed keystroke or two later, a fumble with the mouse, and the computer takes more blame that it just doesn't deserve. It pisses me off to hear idiocy like this. People should learn how to use their computers, and not expect them to read their minds. Not yet anyway.

Sure there are poorly designed interfaces for computer software, but that's no excuse. There are many examples of buggy software, just look at Microsofts recent security problems. That isn't an excuse for not making backups, or saving your work. It certainly does not excuse people from thinking about what they do.

"Damn thing just doesn't understand me! I tell it to save, and it print a reciept."

I was actually watching her use the cash register. I saw her hit the P key (P for print? What a shock!). She'd been using this software for six months with no problems, and all of a sudden it wasn't working for her.

"Michael, the cash register is broken. Can you fix it?"

I didn't fix the register. I carefully explained that to save something you press the S key (S for save? That's umpossible!).

"That's exactly what I did."

Only it isn't what she did. It wasn't even close to what she did. The register did exactly what she told it to do. It broken, she was. Maybe it's time to replace her.