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

Well for once I'm happy to see a synchronized version - without laugh tracks...
But I just wonder, why they have to change stories of books which were plainly just written to have a movie made - Jurassic Parks sequel "Lost World" would be an example, why change a anyway unrealistic, perfect-movie-material-story to make it even worse?

An annotation to the "original" topic: have a look at http://www.h2g2.com/A122086, an entry about Tech Support - they should get a hint to this here forum

Working in the IT industry, I have thought for a long time that al these problems were down to stupid users - but I've just realised: it's Bill's fault!

For years Bill has been telling everyone that computers are *really* easy to use, and reliable, and if they'll just give him a few hundred mre dollars it'll bet better still.

Small wonder that, having shelled out enought money to pay off the national debt of most of the third world, users believe him. Otherwise they would feel stupid, and that's bad marketing. So obviously having bought one of these reliable easy to use computers, how could the user be expected to know that they are still horribly inconsistent, unreliable, buggy, and so bloated that anything short of a Cray struggles to load Word in the same day the icon was clicked?

(Has anyone else noticed that all the new Crays are blue since SGI bought them over...?)

Interesting (and shared) observation. Bill has convinced everyone and his brother that even his grandmother could run a computer with ease. Though to be fair, Billy Boy has had plenty of help from Steve Case. The new commercials tout, "Nothing could be easier. If I can do it anyone can." And everyone is shouting, "You can no longer LIVE in this modern, fast-paced world without one!" ... Is it really any wonder?

And then there's the TV commercials for AOL that give the impression that the whole family needs Internet access, e.g. for the kids homework, parents hobbies, e-mail, etc. It doesn't tell the public that what you find on the Internet may be of dubious accuracy, or that search engines will give you tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of matches for whatever you're searching for, most of which will have nothing to do with what you want.

Personally, I don't know why most families need a computer. There is better quality information to be found in most libraries than on the Internet, and since when did a kid's homework have to be word processed. Don't we teach them how to write any more? I understand that some kids just take the information they get from the web and stick it into their homework without checking for accuracy, thinking about what it tells them, considering the context of the question, or whatever. If I had children I wouldn't allow them near a computer for their homework. What are text books and reference books for?

Back in the 80's when home computers (BBC-B, Sinclair Spectrum, Commodore C64) were just getting off the ground someone worked out that, whatever the computer had been bought for, 99.9% of them were just used for playing games. Admittedly the modern PC is faster and has more storage space than the old computers, but I'm willing to bet that the same still applies. The figures may be a bit lower, and you may have to add 'or Internet access', but who uses their home computer for things like (say) cataloguing their video collection or doing their household accounts.

I bought my computer back in '93 when I started an MSc course and my assignments had to be word processed. If it wasn't for that, I wouldn't have bothered. I didn't get Internet access until January this year ('99), and only then because I needed to be able to e-mail my CV to job agencies. Other than this, I admit that my computer is mostly used for games.

I bet my Cyarith could lick your Py'relyth with one wing tied behind her back!

If you ask a 'normal' scientist to look at a picture and reproduce it, he will see lines, shapes, shadows, space, colours, etc... in other words, he will see the details and generally attempt to create each detail which will ultimately usually fail.

Ask an 'artist' the same thing, and he will see the picture as a whole.

(At least that's what I read somewhere. )

*laughs* ... I rather doubt it, but why would we dwaggies fight anyway?

We bought our first psuedo computer (a pacturd h*ll) in 95 ... supposedly so Dad could do his genealogy (or rather so I could do Dad's genealogy ) ... It's mostly my 'phone' now, as I use it more for communication (typed... I hate the voice things) than anything. Though I find this to be a refreshing use.

Btw: I wore the PB out in two years and purchased a real one.

We wouldn't, I'm just being silly. Dragons are much to sensible to waste time on aggressive nonsense. At least, we female ones are.

I have a friend who lives near Manchester (I live in Redditch). When I left my last company, where we had e-mail but not Internet access(!?!), he said 'You'll have to get an e-mail account, 'cos I'm better at answering e-mail than snail mail'. Since then I've lost his e-mail address. Oops!

I'll have to try 'phoning him, if I can remember his postal address so I can get his 'phone number from directory enquiries.

Phew, just read 6 weeks worth of messages on this strand and thought I'd put in my bit.

Zis Guy is right in what he say's. When I was at my fist poly (2nd rate university and now obsolete for non-UK researchers) we were all taught programming (well BBC Basic) and how things worked.

When I first started work, you HAD to understand programming to get anything out of databases (dBase III+ and V)

However now with Wizards, smart icons et al users think they can do everything with a click of a mouse button. This is the crime that BG and co are guilty of. It ain't easy.

For example, it took me an hour to get Access 97 to tell the difference between the string "PASS" and "pass", and had to resort to a function I had never used before (VFP being my major database language).

It's true that most people don't know how cars work and yet drive, and therefore most people who don't know how PCs work can use them to an extent, but it is a mistake to think they can use them anywhere near their full potential, even if the software worked.

CH

One of my new firms' clients has an engineering manager who is an enthusiastic amateur programmer, and believes everything should be done in MS Access. Then he expects IS to pick up the pieces when the - now - business critical application falls over due to the inadequacies of Access, or someone deleting things because of insufficient security controls, or whatever.

There is only one computer brand in the world which really is as easy as it claims, and my mum has one. She won't change it. I suggested she upgrade from her IIci to an iMac, and she won't hear of it. She understands the one she has, and that's good enough for her

Hey, everyone! Please, please, please fill out my questionaire at http://www6.bravenet.com/vote/vote.asp?userid=ow288909

      o      o       o      o
° ° ° °

I always appreciated AOL's dedication to ensuring (through their CD distribution campaigns) that I would never need to buy coasters.

The idea of everyone having the Internet creates an awful lot of problems for service people as well when you accidently sign people up for service before realizing they haven't yet mastered the intricacies of using a phone. I used to work in a computer store that sold subscriptions to an ISP with different dial-up numbers so that any call you made to them would be local (assuming you used the right number). I'm not sure how the phone system in the UK is set up, but in Canada if you try to dial a long distance number, you have to dial 1-(three digit area code)-(seven digit number), otherwise you get the message "Sorry, that's a long distance number. You must dial 1, followed by the area code, etc."

Anyway, this woman phones up one night and starts ranting about how she's got a $300 phonebill and that we should pay it for her. I eventually got out of her (in between various personal attacks and complaints) that she had been dialing this long distance number to connect, rather than one local to her area. When I pointed this out to her she asked "How the hell was I supposed to know it was long distance!?"

I kindly suggested she talk to the ISP or the phone company, hoping that one of them would get sufficiently fed up to disconnect her.

Actually, I like the D - it conveys a sense of LOL

3

I've done you're questionnaire (short and sweet), but there's just one question. Companies advertise the fact that their products are more energy efficient than their competitors'. What they don't tell us is how energy efficient the company is. I don't know where you come from but in Britain I'm not sure how readily available this information is. So how do you go about finding out how energy efficient a company is?

When I started to read this thread I had a great story to tell...but now I've kinda lost it...oh dear...

I'll get..errmmm...get..errmmmmmmmm..back.

You should do exactly that