Category Archives: General Technology
Death of “Father of the PC”
The BBC News posted the article Microsoft founders lead tributes to ‘father of the PC’ last week. It didn’t seem to get that much press coverage, which is a shame.
As many of the founders of modern technology grow older and even pass away, it shows the maturity of much of the technology. Much of the computing world was up until very recently a wide frontier. However, even the Internet has undergone some maturation and taming (although, I still maintain that “www” really stands for the “wild, wild west”).
Should We Give the Customer What They Want?
Brad Egeland of Project Management Tips wrote “Should We Give the Customer What They Want?” about the dangers of IT concentrating upon what the customer is asking for instead of why they want it.
Stupid Software
Seth Godin blogged about “The end of dumb software”. I’m not so sure about that title. Maybe there will be an end to dumb software, but there will never be an end to stupid software.
The difference? Godin blogs that smart software is “to be smart, to interact and to be open”. In his examples, dumb software is isolated, by itself and doesn’t understand you or the other applications you use. OTOH, stupid software is, well, stupid. It doesn’t have common sense, it does things in a non-intuitive manner, it does unexpected things without warning, it doesn’t tell you important things, but it will do and tell you things you don’t want or need.
Specifically:
- Stupid software takes too long to download an update. First, it tells you an update is available, and then it takes 20 minutes to download it. Meanwhile, you’re left wondering whether or not you can use it.
- Since stupid software takes so long to download, you decide to use it anyhow. Then, when you are in the middle of doing something, it shuts down without your permission so it can install the update.
- Stupid software updates the software and then immediately goes out to check to see if it is up-to-date. Then, it tells you there are no new updates.
- Stupid software does not restart the application it killed without your permission in order to do the update.
- Stupid software isn’t well tested. It crashes, freezes or just generally not work even in the most normal of circumstances. Not only that, but user acceptance testing? You’re kidding, right?
- Stupid software makes you look at other alternatives, no matter how bad the others may sound.
We have always had stupid software, and we always will. However, how stupid does the software have to be before people abandon it in droves?
Outages and Such
Well, I take it that everyone survived both of the BlackBerry outages last month. What is interesting is that some have become so accustomed to using the BB instant messenger that they didn’t even have others’ phone numbers programmed into the devices.
We are looking at a single point of failure here. When it comes to electronics and computers, single points of failures sooner or later do fail. Without an alternative, which in this case could have been done even with the same device since the voice phone service wasn’t down, communication is just plain broken.
Those who haven’t studied the Internet are probably not aware of its military origins. It was invented as a way in which communication packages could be routed to the destination even if several nodes had been blown up. Redundancy is the key to the web’s success.
Servers are single points of failure as well. That’s why server backups are very important. Often, when we think of backups, we think of file and system backups, and that is an important ingredient. However, in mission critical situations, a server backup might be an entire server sitting there ready to take over if the primary goes down.
All companies, large or small, need to weigh the risks of when, because it isn’t if but when, things go down. What do you do when your server breaks? Your Internet connection doesn’t work? What will you do if the electricity goes out?
I’m not kidding.
FedEx didn’t become a success by twiddling their thumbs. I remember a story told in a class where shipments were backing up because their computer system went down. The president of the company walked into the distribution center and found everyone idle. He asked why they weren’t doing anything. They told him the computer system was down. So, he asked them what were they doing so that when it came back up they could quickly catch up. He then further asked what did people do before computers were so common.
He went into the store room, got some markers and Post It Notes, wrote package numbers on the Post It Notes and put them by the terminal and had the packages marked with a marker and moved into the aircraft. When the computer system came back up, they knew where every package was. All they had to do was to enter it into the computer.
Could you react as easily if a key technology wasn’t available?
When Is It Just Not Worth Fixing?
I’m going to attempt to tackle a somewhat sticky problem today: When is it just not worth fixing your old computer?
It’s sticky because the short answer is: “It depends.”
Think about when a car starts getting some age on it. Is it worth fixing? Should I get a new one? How much could I get for a trade-in? Etc. The answer in that case is the same. It depends.
Yesterday, I looked at two laptops, both requiring similar repairs. While one was obviously damaged, the other had no obvious screen damage. Yet, I concluded that if it were me in the customer’s shoes, I would have not fixed the one with obvious damage. It really wasn’t a matter of it being more expensive to fix, either.
Here’s the deal. In spite of them being manufactured within a year of one another, the one with damage also:
- Had only half the RAM the other one did.
- Only had a 40 GB hard drive.
- Was going to be used for PowerPoint presentations.
At minimum, the RAM would have had to have been upgraded to get decent performance during presentations. That’s on top of the fact that something else yet unaccounted for could’ve been damaged inside. It just wasn’t worth it.
However, the other seems like a better risk. In addition, the larger amount of memory and the bigger hard drive needs to be taken into account.
And yet, it still may not be worth upgrading. If the customer thought it was too slow before, it will still be slow. If the customer thought something was quirky before, it will still be quirky. If the customer was wanting to replace it before, then that likely isn’t going to change either.
Just like some people change cars every 5 years or sooner while others drive cars over 200,000 miles, some believe it’s a better use of their money to buy a new computer every 3 years while others keep the one they have until it completely dies.
Like I said, it depends.
Does Technology Really Make Things Easier?
Technology allows fewer people to do the same job that required many to do before. Leveraging technology allows greater productivity, standardization and fewer mistakes.
There’s a flip side to this, folks. Technology also stops more people from doing their job when it breaks down or doesn’t work right. Leveraging technology allows more time to be wasted in trivial and personal venues, restricts freedom of dealing with unique situations and can cause more errors in less time than previously imaginable.
This may be a news flash for some, but hopefully not to regular readers here, but technology is built by humans. Humans make mistakes.
Here are a couple of personal examples of how frustrating it all can be:
1. I wanted to buy something before my vacation started. I was given a box to put in my zip code to calculate the shipping. It was calculated, so I clicked on Next. I was presented with a confusing screen to fill in my shipping an billing details. I had to re-enter my zip code that I had already entered on the previous screen. I had to re-select my shipping option that I had already entered on the previous screen.
It gets worse. The Submit button was on the bottom of the screen. So, I clicked on a button that said Go. I got an error that the coupon code could not be blank. Huh? I have no coupon! That’s when I noticed the thin lines, apparently meant to offset the group. OK, so I finally notice I have a scrollbar, scroll down to the bottom and hit Submit.
You would think everything would be hunky-dory at that point, right? Well, you would be wrong.
What I did not notice is that, apparently, when the coupon error came up, it reset my shipping again!
So, now I have a battery for my laptop that I will need on my upcoming trip, which may or may not arrive in time for me to actually use it on the trip!
2. My daughter called me wanting advice on whether or not she should drop a class. I’m not sure why kids always call you for advice when they’ve already made up their minds, but at any rate, she was online talking to me while discussing it. So, she clicked on the button to drop the class. Unfortunately, she clicked the wrong button.
OK, so you would think that if something like a class can be dropped with the click of a button, it should only take the click of a button to get it back, right? Again, you would be wrong. Now, she has to do all sorts of paperwork to get back into the class. She must apply for re-admittance to the class, and she has to have a written request from the teacher to re-admit her to the class! This could take days to fix a problem caused in a few seconds.
Yes, I should have been more careful in viewing the final order, but is it really the goal of a company to make it less pleasant to buy stuff from them?
Yes, my daughter should have paid more attention to which button she was clicking on, but why isn’t there an “undo” function? I mean, universities were what built the Internet! Shouldn’t they should be leading the way in technology instead of using some arcane and confusing user interface?
No technology is perfect. It never will be unless the humans that build it become perfect. However, consider whether or not the intent is to make it easier or harder for the person to accomplish what they want to accomplish. Consider whether or not the intent is to make it easier or harder for the person to make a mistake. Consider the methods for correcting the mistake.
Is your technology driving your customers away? Is your technology frustrating employees enough to make them update their resume? Is your technology preventing your customer service and sales reps from actually helping customers? Do your processes make sense? Technology without process is essentially useless, you know. Are human beings a factor in your processes, allowing for uniqueness, creativity and, of course, mistakes?
The Information Explosion
Technology is moving at a rate quite unparalleled in history. This video shows the breathtaking pace of technological and information advances.
