Comments for entry "Things I Don't Know How to Do" at Dilbert.com Blog

Comment from alex168

TuePMPDTE_Rthth

We'd love to offer you a free license of NetCDP Online backup you can try. Just have a Amazon S3 account or an NAS account, add your account information, which is all you need to do and your files are backed up and protected automatically and continuously. There really is nothing for you to learn or do. Alex http://www.netcdp.com

Comment from Kshaeta

MonAMPDTE_Rthth

Is it just me or do half of the posts that you have received sound like advertisements... this goes with your blog about shopping, and how it's broken. Did real ordinary people post these messages, or did sneaky people trying to advertise their wares post these messages? How can you tell? Frankly, regarding learning, either get someone to come to your home and show you how to backup your software, or set it up for you, or read the manual. Skip the next movie, and setup your software. You are a syndicated cartoonist, you do lectures and fly everywhere, have many books published... you can probably afford to hire a neighbour nerd to come over, and quickly show you how to setup your software to work right. Even get them to purchase the proper equipment. Their time is pennies in your pocket, you wealthy syndicated cartoonist. They could probably tell you how to use your headset as well. Maybe make you a little post-it note to put in your car that says "Hold button for three seconds to mute... blah blah blah".

Comment from scroggo

MonAMPDTE_Rthth

Didn't you address this issue in The Dilbert Future? I think you used the example of using your airline !$%*!$

Comment from roccos

SatPMPDTE_Rthth

I have to comment. I have to comment to say - people like YOU DRIVE ME NUTS! ha . Just Kidding (sort of). I had to laugh at the bluetooth headset since my husband cannot ever make his work. I have to do it every time for for him. This is a harvard graduate - granted - class of '64. But I'm not THAT much younger! I agree with one of the previous posters - I would NOT be able to give up on the headset - I would Make it work - Along with all the other gadgets around me. I really wonder what is the difference? I am not as articulate as my dear husband (certainly not as smart in SOME things) but I CAN figure out how things work. Some say its a 'competitive nature' that I have - tho I don't see it - that makes me persevere through setting up a router, a bluetooth, a google API map. I cannot just give up. I cannot let that little gadget get the best of me. I've also found its better to do it yourself - that way (normally) you'll never forget how to do it the second time.

Comment from Leora

SatAMPDTE_Rthth

This is why most people don't work on their own cars anymore, except for really basic stuff. The things are controlled by so many interdependent computers, sensors, and relays, that if you mess with one then you'll mess with the whole system and end up firing your airbags when you try to turn on the AC. It's all part of an evil plan to ensure the total helplessness of the human race when faced with malfunctioning technology. Resistance is futile... And when it comes to manuals, remember that they are usually written by a tech writer who, though he or she may be competent, is assigned the laziest, dumbest schlub off the assembly line to provide the technical input (he's the one they want to get rid of for the day). Even more fun if the manual has been subsequently translated from Korean to Urdu to Swedish to English.

Comment from Rockeye

SatAMPDTE_Rthth

The syndrome you describe brings to mind Alvin Toffler's "Third Wave." Eventually we all decide that the cost-benefit curve no longer justifies adding some bit of random knowledge or technology into our lives. Just like science builds upon the discoveries of earlier research, losing the cutting edge builds upon losing itself. Eventually our cutting edge begins to look more like a spork. The adoption of change is a young man's game. As we age our priorities change and we just don't care about as much. I personally wish I could figure out how to set up a home server, but its easier to just buy everyone in the house a laptop and let them fend for themselves. As an aside, the idea Webgrunt has above (fourth post) sounds good. Kinda like Dummy-Certified. Or Ease-of-Use Certified. Use whatever euphemism you like, but still a good idea.

Comment from latsot

SatAMPDTE_Rthth

Part of the problem is usually that the product designer is trying to solve a different problem in designing it than you are in using it, at a variety of different levels. For one thing, they don't always need to make products - especially high tech ones - usable in order to sell them. For another, they don't always design these things in the wild: a bluetooth headset is for handsfree calls right? But what if you are listening to music? What if your phone is connected to something else with bluetooth at the same time? To complicate things further, if the product is supposed to communicate with other things, there might be a whole lot of reasons why it doesn't work ranging from bad protocol implementations on other (or their own) devices to an evil desire to lock the user into their company's products. For example, my bluetooth-related requirements are pretty simple, yet it has not been easy to put a workable solution together. I'm almost but not quite there. I want to listen to audiable's audiobooks on my phone, using bluetooth headphones when I'm walking about and on my car stereo when I'm driving. When calls come in, I want the audiobook to stop playing, rather than just mute (so I don't lose my place) and for the call to kick in instead (both on the headphones and in the car.) I want to be able to voice dial without having to set up different numbers on my phone and car stereo. Is this too much to ask? Almost. I've managed to get a car stereo that works nicely, although it will only voice dial numbers stored in the stereo itself, so I have to mess about when a number changes. I have an android phone, which usually works beautifully with the stereo: it connects automatically and resumes playing the audiobook from the last position. It handles calls beautifully. However, there is no audiable client for android, so I have to mess about stripping the drm out of the books, just so I can listen to them in the way I want. My headphones tend to work fine as well with this phone (although I went through a couple of phones that didn't implement the right bluetooth profiles). However, occasionally and for reasons I don't understand, the phone will refuse to connect to either or both. Sometimes, turning the phone off and on works, sometimes it seems to forget the pairing and I have to pair it again. My point is this: what seems like a straightforward thing to want to do, which seems perfectly in line with what bluetooth and these devices are intended for, is far harder and more annoying than it needs to be, partly because the designers didn't have this particular application in mind. There are ways to build stuff that would make this kind of thing a lot easier and more reliable, but there's no real payoff for either the manufacturer or the designer.

Comment from mphealy_2000

FriPMPDTE_Rthth

Try Jungle Disk for your backups. No hardware needed; it backs up your files to the Amazon S3 cloud. Very cheap and easy to use.

Comment from seerubyfall

FriAMPDTE_Rthth

That is how ordinary people turn into clueless senior citizens. Sorry.

Comment from webgrunt

FriAMPDTE_Rthth

I'd like to form a new corporation that provides product testing for new product designs. Potential products will be tested in my company in the exact form they would be sent to the consumer (packaging, manual, etc.) All the testers will have IQs ranging from 90 to 110. If ninety percent of the testers can't figure out how to use the product in, say, five minutes, the product will receive a "fail" rating and specific information will be gathered on exactly what the difficulties were. This information would be provided to the company providing the product so they know what they need to change. By redesigning their product using my company's feedback until it receives a "pass" rating, companies could ensure that their products will be found to be user-friendly by most people. I'm not actually going to form such a corporation for numerous reasons, but if someone else wanted to take my idea and use it I'd be happy just to have contributed something towards making products easier to use. If someone has already thought of this idea, please don't tell me--I'd like to think I'm the first one who thought of it.

Comment from ewart7034

FriAMPDTE_Rthth

Scott - As a marketing guy in high tech companies for about 30 years now, your work has entertained and amused me considerably. (20 of those years were in HP's cubicle farm - you can imagine how well I relate to some of your strips) Can I return the favor now? I'd like to give you a solution to your backup problem I work for a company (http://www.rebit.com) that solves the backup problem for people like you... people who need a backup solution that's as easy to use as the automatic transmission on their car. Buy an external hard drive loaded with Rebit, plug it in, and forget it. Everything on your computer - everything - will be backed up, continuously. No settings. No schedules. No choosing file types or folders. Just plug it in. Some people are going to recommend online backup such as Mozy or Dropbox.... I also recommend these, but only for offsite storage of irreplaceable data that you might need to recover in case your home or office burns down or is broken into. For real time backup and recovery of operational files, and the ability to restore your computer to it's original state in case of a crash, there is no substitute for local backup to an external hard drive, and there is no solution easier to use than Rebit that provides as deep of protection - all your files, all your programs and their settings, your OS, it's updates/patches, etc. will all be protected. Scott, you have my email from my registration... contact me directly, and I will ship you a Rebit backup drive at no charge - I'd be pleased to have a way to say "thanks" for all the !$%*!$ you've given me. Norton Ewart Rebit, Inc.

Comment from Aardwizz

FriAMPDTE_Rthth

Several have commented on how many people's VCRs continue to flash 12:00 - 12:00 - 12:00. I'll admit that some of my appliances are doing that right now, but not because I CAN'T or even WON'T set them. My alarm clock has a 9-volt battery, so that, if the power fails, it can keep track of time through the outage. The clock sells for $9.95. But my much more expensive microwave, VCR, coffeemaker, stove, DVR, and probably one or two other appliances ARE NOT DESIGNED to allow a simple battery backup of the clock. We lost power yesterday for a few seconds, and are expecting thunderstorms again today, so there's no point in setting all of them. Againl It's not you, Scott. Like many others, I also haven't mastered my Bluetooth. It talks to my phone OK, but, like Scott, I haven't figured out the proper drumbeat to accept an incoming call without hanging up on them. So I just use the phone to accept the call, and then use the Bluetooth hands-free. (It lives, not on my dresser, but in the sunglass compartment of my car, BTW). Like I said, it's not that we're not smart enough to figure it out (given time), but that the DESIGNERS aren't smart enough to add simple features (like TWO buttons to the Bluetooth, just like my phone has), so that things are truly intuitive. In general, I blame Microsoft. They set the standard for how "intuitive" technology is supposed to be; how helpful customer support is to be; how clear manuals are; and so on.

Comment from jason69

FriAMPDTE_Rthth

I think that this post about technology and the previous post about Iran may be related. Perhaps the Iranian board of elections has new vote counting software, but nobody read the instructions. When the software returned ridiculous numbers, the vote counters responsible just said "Screw it, send the numbers to the supreme leader and he can deal with it". Maybe a copy of the instructions for the vote counting software should have also been sent to the supreme leader.

Comment from BobNL

FriAMPDTE_Rthth

I admire the way you set your priorities. But I'm still glad that you are a comic writer and not a software engineer for, let's say, aeroplanes.

Comment from bobbd

FriAMPDTE_Rthth

I haven't read the other comments, so others may have suggested this. In fact I'm sure of it. Get a Mac. It comes with software to automatically backup any changes you make. Even if you just use the defaults... On the PC, AutoSave automatically saves any changed files but does require some setup. And no more excuses about lost manuals. Almost every manual and user guide is available on the web. What you can use as an excuse is that you can't remember a zillion inane commands to do things that you'll never need to do. I know, boring comment. Bob

Comment from Maiar

FriAMPDTE_Rthth

Wish you a Gloomy Negative Christmas. Among the things listed here, I wish you give up your current blogging software and go back to typepad.

Comment from itegem

FriAMPDTE_Rthth

Apparently we all feel your pain! I am the tech 'guru' around the house as my poor wife is totally technically illiterate and since I seem to be lucky enough to have 'one eye' ... Anyway I too get frequently flabbergasted at the apparent idiocy of the 'designers' of the technology. My last bad experience was with a DVD recorder with DVR capability (i.e. it has a hard disk like Tivo). I had the thing setup to record a weekly show (needed the user manual for that!). At some point I wanted to delete 5 of those shows and discovered to my delight a multi delete option right there on the menu (deleting one by one is rather cumbersome). Easy as pie I was able to select all the shows I wanted to delete so all I needed now was to do the actual deleting ... well you guessed it, not that easy ... I tried all sorts of menu options and buttons (every time having to start with selecting the shows again), but all to no avail. So after wasting all that time I finally gave up and tediously deleted them all one by one. Now every time I see that menu option again I cringe and I have to resist the powerful urge to fling the remote at the menu displayed on the TV. I probably should sue the company for causing high blood pressure ... (sadly that might actually fly here in America). In my opinion the vast majority of technology creators don't get it. The only exception I can think of is Apple but their stuff is too expensive and unfortunately they often sacrifice function for 'good looks' (iPod is a prime example for the latter).

Comment from PurpleFriday

ThuPMPDTE_Rthth

I second the poster who suggested Mozy. I *think* it's available for Macs, and I know it's available for PCs. Since you describe an epidemic of bumps in the road in getting back ups to work, this one might not work either, but 2gb is free. Upgrading to unlimited is reasonably priced, at least to me and I'm broke. But I figure if I use it once if something happens to my main hard drive, it does pay for itself. I have an external hard drive too that is great and easy to use, but if the house burns down, it doesn't necessarily survive along with the other computers. I would guess if you actually did a back up, that no matter the service or type you use, if you have a lot to back up, it'll take a long, long time. My back up to Mozy took 3 days.

Comment from Mattyboy

ThuPMPDTE_Rthth

I'm pretty sure that's just what it feels like to get old, Scott

Comment from brinkeguthrie

ThuPMPDTE_Rthth

Scott, I went over to Best Buy in Pleasant Hill & bought a Seagate FreeAgent portable thing; http://freeagent.seagate.com/en-gb/hard-drive/portable-hard-drive/Free-Agent.html Every month, I just copy the folder where all my good stuff is, iTunes and JPEGs, and copy it into the Seagate thing. Everything's all on there. You're supposed to be able to plug it in and 'sync' it, so it just adds new stuff not added since the last 'sync;' but 'syncs' are confusing, so I just copy and paste the whole thing. Works like a charm, like 70 bucks I think.