Just found this great quote:
The Eskimo asked the local missionary priest, 'If I did not know about God and Sin, would I go to Hell?' 'No,' said the Priest, 'not if you did not know.' 'Then why,' asked the Eskimo earnestly, 'did you tell me?'
This goes together with Bono allegedly reported to have been clapping his hands in a fundraising concert, claiming: Each time I clap my hands a child dies. And someone from the crowd: Then stop clapping your bloody hands!
Which makes me think, how often is the case that we see evil around us, yet instead of working at the solution we sit on our asses or become part of the problem?
Some missionaries belong to the first category, some to the third... How many, you ask? Good point... needs research, just after I go donate some cash to a charity not ruled by any church. I don't want to be the kettle saying black to the pot...
Thursday, 29 January 2009
Wednesday, 28 January 2009
Why is my PC so slow?
How many of you reading this are computer geeks? How many of you have heard the sentence in the title? Not as a "It's time to buy a new computer" turned into a question, but as a serious, honest question that demands an answer. A precise answer. On the spot. Without looking at the computer. With precise instructions on how to fix the problem. Possibly in ten words or less, and don't ask me complicated questions like: what computer do you have, which operating system, how much RAM...
Well I can understand how the average person feels when looking at a computer, more or less like me when I look at something I have no desire to know but I am somewhat forced to interact with. Suppose I'm skint and there is a million dollars at the bottom of a valley which can be accessed only by suspending oneself to a rubber rope and experiencing wild fluctuations of velocity, a technique also known as bungee jumping. Trust me, I have no desire to do that, but I might have to. Well, given the current economy, make it a million euros, sounds better. But...
I was just watching tv a couple of days ago when this advert caught my eye, strange enough because usually I cannot remember who appears in an advert, what they do in it and least of all what the advert is supposed to try and sell. Well this one was asking this question, "how can I fix my PC? what are those errors I see? How comes everything is blue?"... Just visit this site, we have utilities that will fix your PC as new in a zap. I was all: oh great, finally I can tell people how to fix their computers and leave me alone when I'm on holiday at home... but wait a sec, what's that screen the guy is bumping his head into? An Apple Cinema display, just like the one I have in the office... And that other? It's an IMac just like the one my mate Paul has. And the girl there is working with a MacBook, just like the one I'm typing on right now, only mine is black because I'm a cool boy... and lo an behold, the girl is staring at a Blue Screen Of Death... on the Mac!
Yeah, I know, it is POSSIBLE to install Windows on a Intel Mac. You can pay a lot of money for one of these babies (they cost at least 50% more than a computer with similar specs built by anyone else, don't they?), you can pay to get a retail copy of Windows sVista (no typo there), or if you're lucky you may have a proper copy of Windows XP Professional (which as far as I can tell is on the par with Windows 2000 as regards stability and reliability, good enough stuff both of them), and you can also go as far as bothering to install one on the other, which will leave you with a computer prone to viruses and paid about twice as much as your mate paid his... but tell me how likely that is. I don't claim omniscience but what percentage of mac users is actually running windows? Most of those I know are quite happy to speak ill of windows whenever they can (as in telling me I'm a windows person because I remapped the functions of the apple key to the control key... sorry but for me copy and paste are ctrl-c ctrl-v, and don't get me started on why Finder does not have a cut function at all...), so maybe this nice website supports macs as well but the advert people wanted to show the customers something they could more immediately place in context.
So I jotted down the website, this one, and had a look at it. No mac section. Nothing whatsoever, there is no mention of operating systems at all, so I guess all modern Windows are covered. The company has ten years of experience in fixing troubles (three less than me then, but I admit I might have exercised my abilities on a smaller number of computers...), and they are also Microsoft certified. This may look good enough for the regular user, but I cannot manage not to be puzzled by a high tech company which puts out a technically completely misleading advert. Would you trust the president of your nation to have control of the army if he (or she) had only a faint clue of which nation he is supposed to be in charge of? Like if Napolitano (current president of Italy) were to say on TV: we'll solve the troubles with the rubbish at Napoli and Lugano. Lugano is full of people that speak Italian, but it's in Switzerland...
All in all, it seems I'll have to fix relatives' pcs during the next holiday too...
Well I can understand how the average person feels when looking at a computer, more or less like me when I look at something I have no desire to know but I am somewhat forced to interact with. Suppose I'm skint and there is a million dollars at the bottom of a valley which can be accessed only by suspending oneself to a rubber rope and experiencing wild fluctuations of velocity, a technique also known as bungee jumping. Trust me, I have no desire to do that, but I might have to. Well, given the current economy, make it a million euros, sounds better. But...
I was just watching tv a couple of days ago when this advert caught my eye, strange enough because usually I cannot remember who appears in an advert, what they do in it and least of all what the advert is supposed to try and sell. Well this one was asking this question, "how can I fix my PC? what are those errors I see? How comes everything is blue?"... Just visit this site, we have utilities that will fix your PC as new in a zap. I was all: oh great, finally I can tell people how to fix their computers and leave me alone when I'm on holiday at home... but wait a sec, what's that screen the guy is bumping his head into? An Apple Cinema display, just like the one I have in the office... And that other? It's an IMac just like the one my mate Paul has. And the girl there is working with a MacBook, just like the one I'm typing on right now, only mine is black because I'm a cool boy... and lo an behold, the girl is staring at a Blue Screen Of Death... on the Mac!
Yeah, I know, it is POSSIBLE to install Windows on a Intel Mac. You can pay a lot of money for one of these babies (they cost at least 50% more than a computer with similar specs built by anyone else, don't they?), you can pay to get a retail copy of Windows sVista (no typo there), or if you're lucky you may have a proper copy of Windows XP Professional (which as far as I can tell is on the par with Windows 2000 as regards stability and reliability, good enough stuff both of them), and you can also go as far as bothering to install one on the other, which will leave you with a computer prone to viruses and paid about twice as much as your mate paid his... but tell me how likely that is. I don't claim omniscience but what percentage of mac users is actually running windows? Most of those I know are quite happy to speak ill of windows whenever they can (as in telling me I'm a windows person because I remapped the functions of the apple key to the control key... sorry but for me copy and paste are ctrl-c ctrl-v, and don't get me started on why Finder does not have a cut function at all...), so maybe this nice website supports macs as well but the advert people wanted to show the customers something they could more immediately place in context.
So I jotted down the website, this one, and had a look at it. No mac section. Nothing whatsoever, there is no mention of operating systems at all, so I guess all modern Windows are covered. The company has ten years of experience in fixing troubles (three less than me then, but I admit I might have exercised my abilities on a smaller number of computers...), and they are also Microsoft certified. This may look good enough for the regular user, but I cannot manage not to be puzzled by a high tech company which puts out a technically completely misleading advert. Would you trust the president of your nation to have control of the army if he (or she) had only a faint clue of which nation he is supposed to be in charge of? Like if Napolitano (current president of Italy) were to say on TV: we'll solve the troubles with the rubbish at Napoli and Lugano. Lugano is full of people that speak Italian, but it's in Switzerland...
All in all, it seems I'll have to fix relatives' pcs during the next holiday too...
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