Klarinet Archive - Posting 000805.txt from 1999/11

From: LeliaLoban@-----.com
Subj: [kl] Dichotomitis (rant)
Date: Sat, 20 Nov 1999 13:25:48 -0500

Kevin Fay wrote,
>Most people buy Microsoft software for the same reason that most advanced
clarinet players buy a Buffet R-13. Can you buy a better clarinet? Perhaps.
You can certainly spend a whole lot more -- but the R13 seems to work pretty
darned OK by the vast majority of professional clarinet players
here in the U.S. >

Mark Charette wrote,
>>Software & computers are just tools, and like any artisan you try & pick
the ones that will most likely solve a problem with the least amount of
hassle. Until your customer insists that they know better than you ...>>

Funny thing about that: My clarinets and my computers all work "pretty darned
OK" right now, but one significant difference to me is that my clarinets will
still work pretty darned OK on New Year's Day. My computers won't. I'm not
blaming you guys for Borg policies I know you didn't mastermind -- but it's
high time the consumer rebelled against the Collective.

The computer has devolved from a promising tool into a *crappy* tool.
Contrast the long-term performance of any major brand of computer with the
long-term performance of any major brand of clarinet, including an
inexpensive student clarinet. Would anybody put up with a clarinet that only
lasted two years?

I'm using my husband's geriatric (1998) laptop right now. Apparently there's
a Y2K fix available for Windows 95, if he can ever gets around to looking for
it, and if he can figure out how to implement the 1,475 (give or take a few
hundred) easy instructions conveniently written in Propellerbeaniespeak. But
I feel the footsteps of the TEOCAWKI monster shake the earth: Thump. Thump.
Thump. It's coming this way. It's coming to get my desktop computer, a
486, such a fossil (4 whole years old!) that it uses Windows 3.1 and hasn't
even got a modem. The fossil works fine for the word processing and CAD for
which I need it. Too bad, because the TEOCAWKI monster plans to eat its guts
for New Year's breakfast. I can either scrap it and replace it or scrap it
and not replace it. Whoa, great choice. Not.

According to an article by Rajiv Chandrasekaran on page 1 of the "Business"
section of the Thursday, Nov. 18 issue of _The Washington Post_ (available
online at www.washingtonpost.com), businesses and government agencies in the
United States are already committed to spending more than US$100 billion on
Y2K fixes. For comparison, we spent US$15.5 billion on the 1992 Hurricane
Andrew, the most costly natural disaster ever to hit the U.S.A. So now the
Borg are waiting for everybody to finish those obligatory Y2K fixes they've
trapped us into, and as soon as we've paid for all that, they'll go,
"RESISTANCE IS FUTILE!", break out "improved" hardware and Windows 2000, and
make the new computer obsolete, too. In 2001, they'll do it to us again, and
we're such damned sheep that we'll probably let them.

When will the consumer get mad as hell and not take it any more? I wish I
could celebrate New Year's by heaving my old computer out my upstairs office
window onto the concrete driveway at midnight and then *not* replacing the
stupid machine. I don't plan to mark the Millennium with any other
rollicking celebrations, because my husband has to stay alert and sober for
work. He's on duty from December 31 through New Year's. Guess why.

I wish I could revert to using my electronic typewriter, for which I can
still buy parts and ribbons because the Borg can't see typewriters. I play a
1937 Bb clarinet and saxes made in the 1920s. My stove is a 1947 double oven
range that's more energy-efficient than new ones, thanks to the massive
construction. I never learned to drive a car. Somehow I survive in this
technology-deprived manner because for these tasks, the old tools are *good*
tools. But I can't survive without the !=#$%^&*! computer because my editors
want my articles on diskettes.

Now, I'm not a Luddite. IMHO, lots of recent technology is demonstrably
better than vintage technology. The flush toilet, for instance, strikes me
as a genuine upgrade from an outhouse. And in theory, I *like* computers,
don't get me wrong. I bought my first computer, the original 64K IBM-PC,
back in 1982. Back then, I could upgrade by adding something new to the old
machine. That was a good tool, IMHO: not mature technology, but something
new that evolved in ways that made sense -- until the Collective figured out
it could force us to toss the whole system and start over every two years by
making the new "improvements" incompatible with the old "improvements".
Today I like reading the klarinet list, communicating with interesting people
all over the world and all the rest of the goodies the Internet makes
possible. But I've *had it* with being a willing victim, addicted to
upgrades.

What's going on with computers right now is planned obsolescence of the most
cynical, manipulative kind. I want a tool that works for a reasonable amount
of time until it breaks down for reasonable reasons. Two years to
obsolescence means a criminal waste of natural resources expended in
manufacturing this garbage and then turning it right around as another
contribution to the solid waste disposal problem. I want the Borg to quit
jerking the public around. For the price of replacing my computer, I could
have bought a first-rate, used R-13.

Lelia
Unworthy of assimilation.

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