When good users go bad

The high-tech industry is the only one I can think of where the forgivingness of consumers is directly proportional to the arrogance of its experts. Which is to say computer users are about as accepting as the so-called authorities are self-important.

After last week’s analysis of Microsoft as a monopoly that truth became all too clear. I’m also inclined to believe that frequent travelers as a whole are even more understanding of the eccentric behavior their technology exhibits from time to time. And that their experts are in a class by themselves when it comes to dim-wittedness.

How did I arrive at this conclusion? For the answers, let’s turn to this week’s mail.

“Whine, whine, whine,” quipped a reader named Lou (who didn’t have the guts to offer a last name) at my suggestion that Microsoft’s buggy Windows 98 version 2 had an unacceptable flaw in its timekeeping routines. “I’d rather have superior and innovative software technology at the expense of a few lost minutes. Go buy a quartz watch.”

John Lawrence snapped, “You miss the main point.”

“I do agree that Microsoft puts out buggy software and they don’t care, but at least I understand that,” he added. “They get to market early with it and maximize their profit. What I don’t understand is their arrogance in the marketplace where they force agreements with their large customers to exclude competition. To dominate a market in itself is a monopoly, true, but to aggressively exclude competition is quite a different thing. That is what they have done. If they had been a benevolent dictator you might have been right to applaud their success at bringing standards. As it is, you are like the Europeans who praised Mussolini because he made the trains run on time.”

There were a lot of anonymous e-mails. The nameless ones tended to be among the harshest. Like this one: “I disagree that we will be better off if the Justice Department breaks up Microsoft,” wrote the unnamed reader. “I have been in the information technical field since 1957 and I have seen much technology come and go, but what we have now as a result of Bill Gates’ tenacity in the industry is the best ever and is outstanding in almost ever situation. “I’m sure that you must know that Clinton’s friends at Apple had much to do with the Justice Department going after Microsoft. We, the intensive users of PCs in the business world will be the losers if Microsoft has to unbundle its products or break up the company.” But some of you didn’t even bother to argue with me. You wrote to my editor with your complaints, which is a surefire way of shorting my circuits.

“(Your) column hardly discusses affects to the business traveler. It is more (my) experiences with (a) defective clock, and some generalized ‘scare’ references similar to the Y2K hysteria, generated by the media,” offered Dean Padrick. “(You are) certainly not giving us any examples of ‘how’ this will affect the business traveler nor providing any insight into what the Microsoft competitors see as how this decision will effect the industry.”

To which I say: Whine, whine, whine.

First of all, Dean, did you bother to read my whole column? I did talk about how this was going to impact business travelers by affecting PDA operating systems and the way our gadgets interface. I also mentioned the issue of standards and rental equipment. Did you even bother reading that far? I didn’t think so. Now it’s true that I included some of my personal experiences in the column, and that’s because it’s a column and not a news story. And one other thing: Next time, why not e-mail me first – or at least cc me – before tattle-taling on me to my editor.

It gets worse. Some readers felt that I had no business writing a technology column in the first place.

“I am truly amazed at your article and how little you understand about the technology you use,” sniffed Evelyn Bradley. “This is a problem with people who don’t want to take responsibility for what they purchase in computers or anything in technology. The network (hubs, servers, routers, switches, ATMs) you are on is constantly updated with upgrades and patches — all so you can have connectivity every morning when you get online. Everything evolves and everything requires changes based on all the obscure needs of our society. With out this, I would not have a job.”

Just as a point of clarification, Evelyn, I don’t consider the clock on my computer an obscure need. You’re right, I don’t know as much about technology as, say, your average network guru. Then again, I’m not a network administrator. Fact is, there’s always too much to know about the ins and outs of the gadgets, and I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t know enough.

What concerns me is the tone of the note and the suggestions that: 1) we’re really serving the technology instead of the other way around; and, 2) that it takes a special knowledge to understand technology that only a few of us are privy to.

Both of these ideas undermine the purpose of technology. The computers are here for us – not the other way around. And we should all be able to figure out how to work a PC without having some know-it-all unlock the mysteries of the machine and then telling us how lucky we are to have them around. Isn’t that what this whole monopoly fuss is about, on one level?

That attitude contrasts sharply with another e-mail from Russ Day, which I will conclude this week’s column with. He writes, “I, for one, am indebted to Bill Gates for building his benevolent dictatorship. You found a ‘fix’ for the bug (in your operating system) so get over it.”

Although I’m not completely comfortable with Day’s approach, I find the content of his letter just as noteworthy as Bradley’s. Here we have a user vigorously defending Mr. Bill’s monopoly, even with all of its obvious shortcomings. I’m certain that he’s not alone. Among rank-and-file users of technology, we silently defend the status quo every time we tolerate the deep flaws in hardware and software.

Christopher Elliott is the author of Scammed: How to Save Your Money and Find Better Service in a World of Schemes, Swindles, and Shady Deals. Critics have called it “eye-opening” and “inspiring” — it’ll “grab your attention and won’t let go.” Order your copy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or iTunes.

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