Nuke Redmond!

From: Dave McGuire <mcguire_at_neurotica.com>
Date: Fri Jan 12 11:17:23 2001

On January 11, Richard Erlacher wrote:
> Sir, you damage your credibility with statements like some you've made here.
> While it's true that the Microsoft products may not be the "best" thing for
> thos of us who are inclined to fuss and fiddle with our computers, they're
> WAY better for those who can't, won't, or shouldn't.

  I know this response wasn't directed at me, but I have to take [at
least a little] exception to this.

  Microsoft products are teaching (have teached?) the world that
computers (ALL computers) need to be restarted several times each day,
and that this is normal and acceptable behavior. That computers break
frequently, and cause the loss of work. That computers (MODERN
computers) have a bitmapped click-happy interface, and anything that
doesn't is "quaint, useless old technology".

  Do you really think these are good things for computer neophytes to
be taught? There are hoards of Microsoft weenies running around who
actually *believe* these things...and with Microsoft teaching them to
shun other technologies, they'll probably *never* understand the true
nature of "computers".

  Here's an exaple of the brain-damage that Microsoft is promoting. A
while back, I had a job in which I was designing some custom
microcoded floating-point processors using MSI and LSI chips and
PAL/TTL glue. My grandmother (may she rest in peace) was talking to
her [windows-running] neighbor, bragging about me in typical
grandmother style...when asked what I do for a living, she answered
proudly and accurately, "my grandson is very smart...he builds
computers!" The neighbor, obviously lacking the social skills to
understand that he was being insulting, said "aww, that's
nothing...building them is the easy part. It's LOADING them that's
hard! Maybe he'll get to that level in a few years. Keeping all
those programs from messing up Windows is the really hard part of
'computers'."

  I was utterly flabbergasted by this, so much that I was rendered
speechless.


         -Dave McGuire
Received on Fri Jan 12 2001 - 11:17:23 GMT