Learning to love the computer, warts and all (By Dave Barry)

[Guest guest]

Hare Krishna.

 

This one strikes particulary close to home, since I, also, am a Microsoft

Certified technician.

 

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At least once per day, without fail, my computer, like every computer I have

ever owned, has some kind of emotional breakdown. It simply stops working --

often when I'm not touching it -- and it puts a message on the screen

informing me that an error has occurred. It does not say what the error is,

nor where it occurred. For all I know, it occurred in New Zealand, and my

computer found out about it via the Internet, and became so upset that it

could not go on.

When this happens, I have to turn my computer off and start it up again.

When I do, my computer puts a snippy note on the screen informing me that it

is scanning its disks for errors, because it was shut down improperly.

 

``But I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING!'' I shout, but my computer ignores me, because

it is busy scanning its disks. You just know that if it finds any errors,

it's going to blame me, even though I don't even know where its disks ARE.

 

While my computer is busy, I scan my wart. I have a wart on my right leg. It

has been there for many years. I call it Buddy. I keep an eye on Buddy, in

case his appearance changes. I've read that it's a bad thing, medically,

when a wart suddenly changes appearance. If I ever look down and see that

Buddy has turned green, or he's wearing a little pair of Groucho glasses,

I'll know it's time to take some kind of medical action. Such as quit

drinking.

 

But my point is that because of computer weirdness, I regularly see an

entire morning's work -- sometimes as many as 18 words -- get blipped away

forever to the Planet of Lost Data. Needless to say, I use Microsoft

Windows. I've been a loyal Windows man since the first version, which

required you to write on the screen with crayons. Every year or so,

Microsoft comes out with a new version, which Microsoft always swears is

better and more reliable, and I always buy it. I bought Windows 2.0, Windows

3.0, Windows 3.1415926, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows RSVP,

The Best of Windows, Windows Strikes Back, Windows Does Dallas, and Windows

Let's All Buy Bill Gates a House the Size of Vermont.

 

My computers keep having seizures, but I keep buying Windows versions,

hoping I'll get lucky. I'm like the loser in the nightclub who keeps hitting

on the hot babe. His shoes are squishing from the piña colada she poured on

him, but he's thinking: ``She's warming up to me!''

 

I bring this all up because now Microsoft has a new version out, Windows XP,

which according to everybody is the ``most reliable Windows ever.'' To me,

this is like saying that asparagus is ``the most articulate vegetable

ever.'' But still, I am tempted. ``Maybe this will be the one,'' I say to

Buddy, as the two of us wait for the disks to be scanned.

 

If I do get Windows XP, I won't try to install it myself. I no longer mess

with the innards of my computer. The last time I tried was a disaster, even

though I enlisted the aid of my friend Rob Stavis, a medical doctor who is

the most mechanically inclined person I know. Rob can disassemble and

successfully reassemble a live human being. He and I recently spent an

entire weekend trying to solve an allegedly simple computer problem. We

wound up at the computer store, talking to guys who were trained by the

Monty Python Institute of Customer Service:

 

US: So, what do we need to make it work?

 

THEM: You need a model FRT-2038 expostulating refrembulator.

 

US: And that will make it work?

 

THEM: No.

 

Finally, I hired a guy named J.C., who is a Microsoft Certified Technician.

He was in my office for the better part of two days, most of it on the phone

with Technical Support. It was fascinating for me, a layperson, to hear the

technical terminology that J.C. used to get the information he needed: ``DO

NOT PUT ME ON HOLD, DO YOU HEAR ME? DO NOT PUT ME ON HO... HELLO? HELLO??

YOU (very nontechnical term)!''

 

In the end, J.C. solved the problem. So now I'm thinking about hiring him

again. Because the more I think about this Windows XP, the better it looks,

sitting over there by the bar, drinking a piña colada. All I have to do is

make my move, and I'll have what every guy dreams of: computer reliability!

 

I worry about who will take care of Buddy.

 

Hare Krishna --

 

ys, Balarama Dasa