Hi,
Dr A. J. Trickett wrote:
> On Wed, 09 Sep 2009 at 09:03:08AM +0100, Sean Gibbins wrote:
>
>> Could this be more shallow?
>>
>> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8244644.stm
>>
>
> I saw this and indeed thought it shallow to the point of being
> worthless. What do you expect from Bill's Broadcasting Company?
>
>
>> No mention of Linux at all, sadly, but hardly surprising I guess.
>>
>
> If reinstalling Windows was "serious" switching to Linux wouldn't
> ever get a look in?
>
>
>> The odd bit of valid advice about backups and easily adding memory and
>> disk, granted, but given that it is meant to address the business of
>> making
>> best use of old hardware (as opposed to binning it and
>> upgrading), the piece is a massive FAIL* in my opinion!
>>
>
> Like most British journalism it's shallow and worthless, why
> bother working when you waffle and no one will notice or care...!
>
> and yes I am bitter and cynical but that does not make me
> wrong...!
>
>
My experience is that large numbers of journos aren't any better than
the average person in the street with computers. Other than technology
journalists I find the average production person is overworked and
stressed and that they think of their computer as a tool. Most of them
have neither the time nor inclination to learn how to fix it. It's
really no different than their telly in their eyes. I often find they
are worse than average because they have a deadline to finish their work
so at best the computer is a tool and at worst it is an impediment to
getting their job done. They don't have time to learn how it works.
When a computer is not working or is spyware infected the user will
soldier on until it really isn't usable then either bring it to work and
dump it on the engineer's desk expecting it to be fixed as a favour or
they will reinstall Windows. One of the saddest testaments to the poor
quality of Redmond's products is that the average Windows user expects
their machine to get infected and/or to break and consider a reinstall
to be the only remedy within their power to perform and that doing so is
something that is normal with computers. They don't know any different.
As someone discovered on one of the LUG mailing lists when someone he'd
installed Linux for asked him to remove it when his son "who knows about
computers" said he should use Windows foind out, most users won't
install anything their mate (whom then dump all their computer problems
on) can't fix.
The average journo works on different stories every day. They write what
is their perception of the truth as far as they have been able to
ascertain with the time at their disposal. I don't like it but I do
understand why they can't be experts in everything they write about.
Cheers,
Paul.
