Another Complaint

**RBB** · 11-24-2008, 03:19 AM

Guess I'm just in a *****y mood lately.

Today, Wing was trying to set up one of the kid's lap-top computer at home to get on the internet. We have a desk top (is that what you call them?) computer, but it isn't working right now. With all the kids out of the house - neither of us knows how to get it working, so we just ignore it. I asked her if the lap top was hers, and she said, "No, mine quit working." I asked her how old hers was when it quit working. She said it was three years old.

Now, can anyone tell me why you buy a computer for almost a thousand dollars and it only lasts three years? We have a sewing machine down stairs that my g-grandmother bought before 1900 and it still works fine.

Something's not right here!

**laughing beetle** · 11-24-2008, 03:34 AM

I think the computers are considered to be disposable commodities. I'm not sure if that is the right term, but if I remember my highschool economics stuff correctly... Most electronics are built with a use life of 3 to 5 years. otherwise the companies that make them would'nt sell anymore, they would make no profit. it's the same thing with lightbulbs. they used to be made so that they would never go out, now you can replace them every month if you get a bad batch. more money in the manufacturers pockets...less in ours.

**Rick** · 11-24-2008, 08:58 AM

Well, you have to remember all of the things that can go wrong with a computer. Your grandmother's sewing machine wasn't all that complicated and didn't have a world full of loosers trying to get in your house just to mess it up. Between ad ware, mal ware, spyware, trojans, viruses, worms and other malignant programs I guess it's a wonder that any of them work.

Make certain you use a firewall if you are running on a high speed internet connection such as cable or ISDN.

Make certain you have a quality anti-virus program running and update it often.

Make certain you are running a quality Ad Ware program. Ad-Aware is good and it's free. Update often.

Make certain you are running a quality Spyware program. Spybot Search and Destroy is good and it's free. Update often.

Make certain you never open an email attachment from someone you don't know. Never!

Make certain you use complicated passwords. Use Upper and Lower case letter, numbers and characters if the system will allow them. Just remember what your password is

Backup your PC often. That way if it does crash you aren't as apt to loose important data.

And remember, the moment you purchase a PC, it's obsolete. There are other faster, more robust machines already on the board to replace the one you just bought.

And never discount our own ability to do really stupid things to our own computer. Delete *.*, for example. Yea, did that once a couple of decades ago. Really valuable lesson I learned there. Thought I was on a floppy disc and was actually on the hard drive. Not good at all. Thankfully, it was a really big hard drive. About 40 meg at the time.

**nell67** · 11-24-2008, 09:02 AM

Originally Posted by Rick

Well, you have to remember all of the things that can go wrong with a computer. Your grandmother's sewing machine wasn't all that complicated and didn't have a world full of loosers trying to get in your house just to mess it up. Between ad ware, mal ware, spyware, trojans, viruses, worms and other malignant programs I guess it's a wonder than any of them work.

Make certain you use a firewall if you are running on a high speed internet connection such as cable or ISDN.

Make certain you have a quality anti-virus program running and update it often.

Make certain you are running a quality Ad Ware program. Ad-Aware is good and it's free. Update often.

Make certain you are running a quality Spyware program. Spybot Search and Destroy is good and it's free. Update often.

Make certain you never open an email attachment from someone you don't know. Never!

Make certain you use complicated passwords. Use Upper and Lower case letter, numbers and characters if the system will allow them. Just remember what your password is

Backup your PC often. That way if it does crash you aren't as apt to loose important data.

And remember, the moment you purchase a PC, it's obsolete. There are other faster, more robust machines already on the board to replace the one you just bought.

And never discount our own ability to do really stupid things to our own computer. Delete *.*, for example. Yea, did that once a couple of decades ago. Really valuable lesson I learned there. Thought I was on a floppy disc and was actually on the hard drive. Not good at all. Thankfully, it was a really big hard drive. About 40 meg at the time.

Ouch Rick,that one had to hurt

**Sarge47** · 11-24-2008, 09:08 AM

At a yard sale I found this old, piece-of-crap, computer desk for $3. To sweeten the sale the lady threw in this really old Compac Deskpro for free! It had a Windows 98 program with a lot of games & it couldn't detect it's internal modem no matter what I did. So I hooked up an external modem, swapped the '98 for Windows 2000, and that's what I've been using for well over the last year. I had so much trouble with my Anti-Virus screwing up my computer that I dumped it & have only been using a firewall! I don't reccomend that to anybody else, but then I only visit pre-determined web-sites.