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Diff: BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor
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Newer page: version 8 Last edited on Monday, June 26, 2006 8:47:20 am by MichaelJager
Older page: version 7 Last edited on Sunday, June 25, 2006 4:01:22 pm by AristotlePagaltzis Revert
@@ -11,10 +11,10 @@
 Then something unexpected happened. The lusers were actually trying to find productive uses for these things. Of course, they fulfilled their original function flawlessly, which was to crash left and right. If you're using these things for something useful, you don't tend to want it crashing left and right, no matter how brainless. Of course, those so brainless as to be found possessed of recent simian ancestry may crash the system left and right, but at a hardware level. (This primitive behavior has also been observed in higher mammals at times. It is not uncommon for these two forms of crashes to be found in close proximity to one another.) All this crashing had a strange tendency to create ill will toward the geeks who created the things. Pretty soon, these geeks, lounging comfortably in the piles of money created by their twisted scheme, found themselves suddenly at the business end of a whole lot of pointy things. Quickly, one of the more resourceful (and sadistic) geeks came up with something called "technical support" to appease the users. Basically, they beat some of the weaker geeks into submission (how one would determine who the weaker geeks were is anyone's guess) then put them on a phone line where the lusers could whine about how their computers crashed left and right. These technicians would then try to help the lusers, who were stupid enough to buy these machines in the first place. When on the phones, the lusers reacted in such a way to make one long for the simplicity of the stone age (and wonder how they ever managed to get past it in the first place.) 
  
 For a while, this kept impalings to a minimum at the lab for a while, but eventually the tech support people were driven over the edge by one too many users complaining that their computers were broken only to find they'd soaked it in bean-and-bacon soup for the past 17 weeks. These geeks bought Uzis and shot up the geeks responsible for putting them in that racket in the first place. Unfortunately, none of the geeks seem to have done anything about any sort of plan "B", either because they were too busy wallowing in money, or more recently too busy perfecting their skills in swordplay to stave off the hordes of lusers. Eventually, the geeks knew they were in trouble when Vito and Nunzio were hired once again to bash down the door of the lab again, this time by the geeks. Forced to surrender, the geeks now became slaves to their own device, now having to constantly be making the things easier to use, less buggy, and more useful. Which just goes to show that the best laid plans of mice and men tend to be about equal. 
  
-Borrowing a quote from Rich Cook, "Programming today is a race between programmers who strive to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the universe, striving to build bigger and better idiots. So far the universe is winning." Where high technology is concerned, the true number of idiots we have on our hands shows itself, and it's not a pretty sight. Sure, someone can design something that even a two-year old can use, but when they do, it will turn out that only a 2-year old will want to use it. This was the guiding principle in the design of child-proof caps on medicine bottles. This may also explain why a frequently heard phrase from the customers on the tech support lines is "Let me get my two-year old... He knows this stuff better than I do. Sadly, in many cases this is true. 
+Borrowing a quote from Rich Cook, "Programming today is a race between programmers who strive to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the universe, striving to build bigger and better idiots. So far the universe is winning." Where high technology is concerned, the true number of idiots we have on our hands shows itself, and it's not a pretty sight. Sure, someone can design something that even a two-year old can use, but when they do, it will turn out that only a 2-year old will want to use it. This was the guiding principle in the design of child-proof caps on medicine bottles. This may also explain why a frequently heard phrase from the customers on the tech support lines is "Let me get my two-year old... He knows this stuff better than I do." Sadly, in many cases this is true. 
  
 Since some little voice in my head tells me that at this point I need to add a disclaimer in here somewhere, this seems as good a place as any. Just remember that if you look at something and realize right away that you don't understand a word of it, you can safely assume that it was written by a lawyer. Or, if you read something in this column, and you don't think that it resembles anything living or dead, you can assume that I was the one who wrote it... maybe. All in all, it's just another brick in the wall (or something like that.) 
  
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