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2/11/2011

Why Normal People Think Engineers are Evil

I bought a new Toshiba NB505 Netbook the other day  at Best Buy for under $300.   For those who don't already know it, a netbook is a stripped-down Laptop which is optimized for Internet access and email.  It does not come with a suite of applications already installed like PC's did in the old days.

I comes with practically no instructions.  All the documentation is in a file, somewhere.  If you click the get started training button, you get a bunch of animated windows tutorials.  There is also a downloadable pdf manual from Toshiba.

The problem is the Toshiba  keeps displaying a pop-up floating "Screen Cover Notice"
"Screen Cover has been turned on for 30 minutes. You can turn it off on "Screen cover" page


in the "Effect" dialog box."

What does this mean? There is no mention in any documentation that I can find.
There is no reference to this notice or the "effects" dialog box that it describes.

I want to know why this notice exists and what to do about it.

For all the help and support information out there and I spent an hour checking the sites
and none of them helped.  You can't call anyone unless you have an hour to kill getting a free line to your friendly support agent in Bangladesh. 

In their quest to remove the human cost and unpredictability from  their universe, engineers have designed close loop systems which casts the computer in a role to replace the need for two people to talk with each other.  They have succeeded in convincing technology manufacturers that they have a better way.  They have utterly failed to devise systems that work for ordinary people.

This is why we hate to:
  - Fly in commercial airplanes
  - Call Verizon for anything
  - Rely on our GPS for directions in a strange place
  - Buy a new DVD player
  - Use the automated ticket kiosk
  - Check the stupid online help system.

This is a partial list.  But you get the idea. 

1 comment:

Rick said...

Next time get a Mac, and youi can get someone at the genius bar to fix it for you in 2 minutes - for free. They'll also basically replace anything that breaks for free as long as it's not damaged. They repalced my wife's iTouch for free because the battery wouldn't hold a charge, even though the reason was because she didn't use/charge it for a year.