h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I hate computers, because they don't work, they're ugly and they smell. There's even more to it than that - http://public.logica.com/~hiltonp/why_i_hate_computers.phtml - but that's the crux of the matter.

What if bridges were like computers? "I'm sorry folks but the bridge is down. We should have it back up again real soon now..."

I agree they are a real pain.
But you can't live with them and you can't live without them so you have to go with the flow.
I work with them every day and at weekends and evenings I use them in leisure - sometimes.
If you just remember that they are inanimate objects p'raps and don't really mean to upset you and in fact are really trying their best - then maybe it'll all work out better....

Computers where originally designed to do boring repetitive tasks for humans. Unfortunately the design was along the lines of a battery, which stores up electricity until you need it - so a computer stores up boring repetitive tasks until you need them done.
A side effect of this is that, just as you must first charge a battery before it is useful, so you must expend a great deal of time doing boring tedious things with a computer (programming, installing software, rebooting etc.) before it become useful. At this point everyone else will switch to a differnt size 'battery' and you will all have to start again....
Once you have that in your mind they make perfect sense.

I like computers. I like playing games and surfing the web and I think it makes my life a lot easier. When things go wrong it it usually something I did and it's pretty easy to fix. The other 5% of the time I just call tech support or a friend of mine and work through it. I don't see why you have so many problems with your computer unless you don't know how to use it and you're just doing something wrong. I don't really like how most of the beige box computers look but I like the iMac, iBook, and the Powerbook G3. There are even a few PC's out there that I think look ok. Now saying that they smell is getting a bit rediculous. They are plastic and metal.
Actually the thing with bridges being like computers has happened... Bridges have broken down and they have had to say come back later. The bridge I use to go to work got hit by a boat and they spent weeks doing a temporary fix on it. We were lucky that it was only slightly hurt so that there was still a lane open.
I use computers at work every day and I still go home and use them. I think you have a right to hate computers but I just don't see the logic behind it.

Logic? What logic has to do with hate and/or love?

Computers are basically very simple devices, only capable of adding numbers. And most of them can count just up to 4294967296 (some only to 65536...) Do you hate a CD player? Or a dishwasher?
(Well, it's not fair - I just asked for logic ...)

Logical or not, I think that what we really hate/love is the things we can do with computers or those we can't do without them. Like h2g2, EE.

I hate computers because I'm the freind that everybody calls when theirs dosen't do what they expected it to.

Actually, that's not true. I don't hate computers. If I did, I wouldn't spend so much time using them. I'd do gardening or something like that instead.

They do still drive me to hideous fits of rage sometimes though, but so does my sister and I live her dearly.