Computer Riptide Sucks Under Users

Bought a personal computer lately? How long did it take before you discovered the darned thing was obsolete? Two months? If the glow lasted that long, count yourself lucky.

The computer industry is changing and eating faster than a 13-year-old kid. Especially, it is eating. If corporate equipment and training budgets could be likened to a kitchen, the computer industry is like a hungry adolescent, raiding the refrigerator, rooting through the cupboards and leaving piles of empty food containers in his wake.

This is getting expensive. For businesses, and for home computer users as well.

Open a computer magazine, and you’ll see advertisements for environmentally sensitive monitors. They’ll shut themselves down and save you power. If you buy one, you can send your current monitor to the landfill, where it can join an expensive mound of functional but outdated computer gear.

For months now, the computer world has waited breathlessly for “Chicago,” a program that will replace Microsoft’s DOS and Windows operating systems. Last week came word that Chicago will run best on keyboards that have three more keys than standard keyboards have. That’s great news for keyboard maker Key Tronic Corp. of Spokane, and the firm’s employees.

But for millions who now will be pressed to replace perfectly functional keyboards, it’s an expensive pain in the neck. Those who stick with outdated hardware or software cannot take full advantage of software improvements and often cannot get technical support when older products need maintenance.

This hasn’t often happened with keyboards but it happens constantly with other components: processors, RAM chips, hard drives, CD drives, mother boards, monitors, modems …

True, many improvements in computer technology have value. Some, though, are to computers what tail fins and power windows are to cars. RAM and hard drives are being overwhelmed mainly because new software comes with snazzier-looking on-screen displays.

So, Americans discard hardware and software like pop cans, while workers file in and out of expensive re-training classes.

The computer industry needs to improve software without rendering hardware obsolete. It needs standards that make upgrades easy and affordable rather than a budget-busting compatability nightmare.

Yes, the computer industry responds to its market. But like a 13-year-old it does not seem to listen closely, or to the right voices. Forget the “power users.” How about those of us who view computers the way a mechanic views a wrench? We want to concentrate on our jobs, not on the programmed obsolescence of our tools.