There’s no picture on this blog post today, because I had to re-image my computer (that’s geek-speak for erasing everything and starting over) and some of my tools aren’t working yet. I can’t change files on my Web site yet because somehow the configurations that I swear I used before aren’t working. And I’m not getting e-mail at my mikemoran.com address. And I can’t reinstall the Microsoft Office applications. I am trying not to get frustrated over this because I try to remember that computers don’t work. Once you accept that, everything gets a bit easier.
I’m also having my first colonoscopy today, which for the uninitiated means I have been fasting and drinking vile liquids because you need to clean up the house before company comes over. But when I clean up my hard disk, everything gets worse. Because computers don’t work.
They don’t work because the things you need to know to make them work are still way too hard. I am an engineer (a distinguished one they tell me) and I can’t figure it all out. I had everything backed up but the new “system image” has different stuff on it than the old one, so some things still don’t work.
Yeah, I know that Macs are easier and that’s great. But someone who does computer stuff for a living like me should not be stumped by any machine that purports to be for normal people.
I am keeping my frustration in check by remembering that computers don’t work. Oh, they work most of the time—just enough to get you to depend on them and then they’ve got you.
So I ask you, why does the computer keep its operating system in the same place as all my programs and data? Why can’t it clean out its colon without wiping out its brains? I’m re-imaging my system because the operating system hosed itself (yeah, I hear you Mac types), but I have to reinstall every blessed tool I have and get the configurations set again.
And the problem, folks, is that everything that uses these blasted computers doesn’t work. If anything is holding back Internet marketing, it’s the complexity. There’s always some new thing to make it all better, but it makes it all harder to understand and to manage. The good news is that Internet marketing is (mostly) free. But unless we all resolve to demand that it become easier, there’s a natural limit as to how effective it can be.
Well, it least most Internet marketing is more fun than a colonoscopy.
