Change in computers as a hobbiest... 2855

Charlie Gibbs

Your point is very well taken. The new bells and whistles, mostly unecessary IMHO, do not make things easier.

I remember when quad audio came out. The magazines said it was better than stereo, but not to the extent that stereo was better than mono. Quad didn't catch on.

A decent word processor is a far more powerful tool than a plain typewriter. But adding bells and whistles from that point only slightly increases its utility.

I use Word 6.0 at home. It has more than enough functions for anything I can think of. I'd use it at work too except they switched me to a more modern version and I had no say.

I do think computer users should know the difference between core and peripheral memory. But I don't think they need to know about technical details--file allocation tables, segment size, etc. Users should know that the ENTER key initiates operations. But they don't need to know about keyboard interrupts.

As you said, screwing up in flying has a far more devastating effect than screwing up on a computer in most cases. Further, while flying, if something goes wrong you MUST fix it yourself right away, usually it is not that critical in computers.

I think today a lot of crashes and lost files cannot be controlled by the everyday user; we have so much junk on our machines it's almost impossible to understand what is going on. Our local newspaper has a FAQ column and it amazes me the complex configurations people have running nowadays.

I must admit there are some modern functions that are automated that I wish weren't. For instance, I don't like how a program attached to an email can start running so easily on its own, which is how nasty virus sabotage spreads.