

Technololgy Companies. We Hate You. - DanielBMarkham
http://www.whattofix.com/blog/archives/2009/03/technology-comp.php

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jcromartie
What!?

Alternative: Go to the Apple store and buy a MacBook. Turn it on. You're done.

~~~
spoiledtechie
Wait, doesn't the macbook cost the same amount of money for what he just went
through?

macbook $ = Articles $.

Hmm. How much is your time worth....

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potatolicious
Regardless, even if the MacBook cost more, at least you don't have the do the
following:

\- Install Norton, or any sort of anti-malware anti-spyware crap. A stock
machine out of the box will work and be reasonably secure for the home user.

\- No need to image the HDD before giving the machine to the user... Because
unless your grandma suddenly learned how to sudo, the odds of them crapping up
their partition is really low.

\- No need to order instructional material on Amazon. Apple's website provides
a large number of introductory videos that show a user how to use MacOS X.

My mother still hasn't quite learned how to use a computer. My hope is to get
her a Mac in the next year and maybe finally she can check her own email :)

~~~
unalone
_My mother still hasn't quite learned how to use a computer. My hope is to get
her a Mac in the next year and maybe finally she can check her own email :)_

When I used Windows I never used Outlook. I didn't actually think other people
ever used it. Even though it was built-in, I just assumed that Windows pre-
installed software was roundly worthless.

OS X does the opposite: they really place emphasis on their built-in programs.
As a result, I tried every program they gave me, and found myself liking
almost all of them. I don't think I could switch back from Mail to Gmail.
Perhaps I'd have liked Outlook, too, but Microsoft didn't give me that same
incentive to switch.

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Jem
> When I used Windows I never used Outlook. I didn't actually think other
> people ever used it. Even though it was built-in, I just assumed that
> Windows pre-installed software was roundly worthless.

You're confusing Outlook with Outlook Express. Outlook does not come with
Windows, only with the Office suite.

edit: although fwiw, outlook express is worse than worthless.

~~~
unalone
Aha, gotcha. So I guess I wasn't missing out on much? (In any event, I think
now if I had a Windows machine I'd get Thunderbird, which never struck me as a
useful idea last time around.)

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randrews
I found the last bullet really interesting. At first I thought "wait, UPS
isn't a tech company" but when you think about it, any time you buy something
on the internet, you're giving money to UPS (or a competitor).

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potatolicious
Actually, interesting anecdote... my former roommate once had to ship a load
of stuff (100+ lbs) from the US to Canada via DHL. DHL quoted him about $1000
for the whole thing.

Then we went through our employer, who had a deal with DHL... $70 and change.

~~~
randrews
A friend of mine used to ship things to his office for much the same reason,
it was cheaper to ship a large load to a business address (something to do
with rates for freight). Once he ordered ten huge CRT monitors, and then sold
nine of them to his friends. Ended up both getting a new monitor and making a
profit.

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run4yourlives
I noticed he didn't bother to cancel is wacko internet account.

And he wonders why things are so bad...

~~~
DanielBMarkham
"he" is stuck with wacko internet account because he lives in a place where
you have 2 options: dial-up, or wacko.

~~~
run4yourlives
Heh, didn't notice you were also the submitter. Sorry. I feel for you, but
seriously, no other options? Wow.

Could I ask then why you bought Norton? I've installed avast on my mother's
machine and haven't heard from her since, and it was free.

Also, as much as I hate the phrase "buy a mac", I'm convinced that all non-
tech users should be using one of these machines.

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DanielBMarkham
Macs are cool, and if the old folks in the park where mom lived all had Macs,
I'd be buying her one. I'm hoping that she'll get a lot of support from her
peers - especially since I'm 1200 miles away.

Norton was probably the worst choice on my part, and it came from habit. I've
used Norton for a long time, and it has a good reputation. But you're right:
there are much better options for security software.

~~~
menloparkbum
Can you return it?

I gave my mom a Macbook 5 years ago and she's never had to ask anyone for
support.

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DanielBMarkham
Probably not. I spent all day "configuring" it -- resizing the icons and text
size, doing all that install stuff, imaging the drive, etc. Plus it's shipped.

How old was your mom when you got it for her? Did she have previous computer
experience?

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menloparkbum
She was 55 and uses a PC at work.

~~~
DanielBMarkham
I think that's a little different. My mom is 75 and the last keyboard she used
was a selectric typewriter sometime around 1990.

So we're starting completely from zero.

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noodle
simple solution: go out of your way to use and promote smaller/better
companies wherever possible.

i go out of my way to avoid giving money to best buy, norton, microsoft, etc..

these companies won't get better if you complain about them but continue to
give them money. feed their competitors and you might see change.

