Saturday, December 03, 2005
Reboot This and Replace That…
Gadgets are definitely advancing. Computers are prevalent in offices as well as homes. High Definition TV is getting closer and closer to being the standard. Cars have computers running them (too bad they can’t drive them). Everything is going high-tech. Sounds good, but…
Your personal computer is no longer the only item in your home or office that needs to be rebooted to work out some electronic “kink” or replaced after only a short operating life.
Sometimes, the “unkinking” involves an act as simple as turning the device off, then on. Sometimes, you have to actually pull the plug out of the socket and reinsert it. In my husband’s office, they have a coffeemaker that occasionally quits with no rhyme or reason. They have learned to do the “plug out-in” trick. A co-worker’s stereo is just as finicky. Friends of ours have a Honda Prius hybrid car which occasionally doesn’t start until they turn it off totally and then back on. These fixes are easy. Many are more complex.
High-tech devices, like our 32” Sony TV, don’t respond to either action. Nor to banging on the side like the old tube TVs. Our set went belly-up after 14 months, about two months after the manufacturer’s warranty had expired (our previous 29” Sharp TV lasted 10 years with no problem). We had extended coverage with the retailer (Circuit City) but nevertheless had to endure a five-week-timeframe to get the set repaired. (Thank goodness we have spares.) The repairman wasn’t very sympathetic, stating: “Your more advanced electronics are going to break down more. You just have to expect it.”
Oh, goodie, I can’t wait to see what’s next.
Even our toaster is far more complex than the ones my father used to repair on our dining table for friends and neighbors. Don’t even get me started on the microwave that began making a mysterious rattling sound about two weeks after we bought it (the repairman just scratched his head and said maybe we were using it too much – gee, sorry). Then, there’s the clothes dryer that wouldn’t start except when we took it back to the retailer. (Turns out that the power cord had been installed wrong at our house but at the store they bypassed the cord and hooked up the electricity directly to the dryer, thus missing the problem.)
Sure, some of the problems are user error. Still others are poorly trained repairmen. However, my money is on increasingly poor quality and rushing a product to market before it’s thoroughly tested. This is an old Microsoft trick, where software often is released with “bugs” in it, which they then fix by sending out “patches.” Their track record on hardware such as the newly-released Xbox 360 is apparently no exception, with mid-game crashes a common complaint by the “lucky” customers who were able to buy one before they disappeared off of store shelves. (See what a billion dollars of marketing will do for product demand?)
You’re probably looking around your home or office right now with a wary eye. Have no fear. It’s part of our high-tech lifestyle. Be prepared to reboot or replace. As the repairman said, “You just have to expect it.” Yippee.
Not to add to your feelings of apprehension, but on top of such kinks, there are the patent fights, such as the one going on between NTP and Research in Motion (the maker of the popular “Blackberry” PDA). In a move straight out of a fairy tale, NTP attacked the golden goose, claiming patent infringement. So far, they seem to be in the right, but by rejecting a $450 million settlement as being chump change, they could end up shutting down the “Blackberry” network and lose not only the original settlement amount but any possible future revenues share, since there’s already talk that company IT managers are looking at switching to Palms instead. No amount of turning on then off, unplugging and replugging, jiggling, juggling, and banging would work that kink out.
Copyright © 2005 A.C. Cargill
