As a software engineer, I would quite agree. We generally don't expect people to understand the details of how automatic transmissions work so they can drive their cars, we don't expect people to understand the details of microwave transmissions so they can place long distance phone calls nor do we expect people to know advanced microeconomics so they can make purchases at the local mall, so it seems rather absurd that people should have to understand so much of the details of computer technology, so they can use their PCs or laptops. It's amazing that the computer industry has been able to get away for so long with being able to make consumers shoulder the burden of having to do so much of their own troubleshooting and fixing of computer problems, when no such expectations exist concerning the other technologies that we make use of in our daily lives.  
Jim F.

-- Doug Henwood <dhenwood@panix.com> wrote:

On Jan 24, 2007, at 12:48 PM, Dwayne Monroe wrote:

> It all seems to be a vast and mysterious black box.

Like I keep saying, I bet 95% of users want a mysterious black box -  
one that's easy to operate and doesn't break much. I don't accept  
that wanting to know what goes on inside your computer or the pipes  
of the interweb is at all analogous to wanting to understand how your  
society works. My networked computer helps me understand how society  
works, but that doesn't mean I want to know what's going on under  
this keyboard.

Doug
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