talkingDigital

Cheap computers are everywhere. I say this knowing that cheap is relative. $600 to one person is different than $600 to another.

Some may think that $600 is high considering that the same $600 can buy you other items that will last much longer than 4-6 years and those things typically won’t break down or crash.

Is $600+ for a computer high when you compare it to a nice piece of furniture, art or a pretty good tuneup on your car?

Once you’ve purchased a computer, how much is too much to spend on a repair? When do you fix it and when do you replace it?

Sometimes we over simplify this decision process. We try to come up with formulas like, “If the repair cost is higher than one third the price of new, and the system is more than three years old, you should replace it.” However, there is much more to consider than a basic formula can offer.

No matter how much you spend on the purchase of a new computer or how much an upgrade or repair may cost, the true value of a computer is in the information, not the components.

If you suddenly lost your address book, how much would you pay to get it back? If you suddenly lost all of your photos, how much would you pay to get them back? If all of your financial and business data were suddenly gone, how much would you pay to get it back? Chances are that the value of one or more of these things exceeds the value of the computer.

The more I work with people and computers, the more I realize that computers can not be compared to anything else. Yet, people try.

People try to compare their computers to cars, appliances, and other items that we use in day-to-day life. Being a computer repair guy is far more stressful than being a washing machine repair guy. If the washing machine guy can’t fix the problem, does your entire wardrobe disappear? If he makes a mistake while replacing a belt, is there a chance that it will tear your clothes to shreds? Not really.

Working with computers is quite different. I have seen entire family photo collections disappear in an instant. I have seen years worth of financial data accidentally deleted. These are daily mistakes that have no equal in the world outside of computers.

There are two costs to every computer and both are equally important. There is the cost of the system itself and the cost of maintaining that system.

Buying a top of the line computer is worthless if you don’t spend a few dollars on a backup drive. Spending a few dollars on a backup drive is useless if  you don’t use it. Be honest with yourself and evaluate how important the data on your computer really is and how significant of a role it plays in your life.

This may be an eye opening process, but the sooner you realize it, the more you will take care of the information that the system holds.

This week’s article is for all you dial-up Internet users who haven’t moved to broadband because it is too expensive. I am not directing my comments to those who are on dial-up because they live in the toolywads and are not eligible for DSL or Cable Internet.

Broadband Internet is no longer a luxury, it is a necessity and a value for anyone who uses the Internet more than five minutes per day. To illustrate I will explain how broadband Internet can give you half an hour or more to the average day simply by making one single chore easier.

How a dial-up user makes dinner:

1. Take a survey of what’s in the fridge. Ah! Left over chili, garlic, sour cream, and corn tortillas. – 5 minutes.
2. Dig through half a dozen or more recipe books to find a recipe that includes enough of these ingredients to make a pleasant dish. – at least 20 minutes.
3. Try to find a way to keep the recipe book open and a place to set the recipe book while you compile the meal – 10 minutes.

How a broadband user makes dinner:

1. Surveys the fridge as noted above. – 5 minutes.
2. Go to allrecipes.com and foodtv.com and check off a list of ingredients that you have on hand. – 2 minutes.
3. Click the button to search recipes and see results of all 200 recipes that meat your specifications. – 6 seconds.
4. Narrow the search to include something that also has purple onions. – 3 seconds.
5. Print out the recipe as a 3×5 cutout. – 15 seconds.
This process would take over an hour on dial-up Internet waiting for pages to load.

Not only is the broadband connection faster, but it changes how time is spent. Rather than waiting, searching, and trying to find even a simple result for your search, it quickly puts you in the right category and then all of your time is spent using your right brain to choose which result you want to go with.

How a dial-up user programs their TV remote:

1. Dig through drawers looking for the manual. – 20minutes-1 hour.
2. Assuming that the remote is found, look up in index how to program the device.

How a broadband user programs their TV remote:

1. Visit the manufacturer’s website. – 5 seconds.
2. Go to the support section and into the manual downloads. – 10 seconds.
3. Download the manual. – 45 seconds (25 minutes or more on dial-up).
4. Search the manual for “program channels.” – 6 seconds.

Broadband Internet becomes a tool that replaces lost time. Isn’t that worth $5-$10 more per month?

In fact, it is very likely that if you do your homework, you will find that broadband Internet will actually save you money and time.

I have thought a lot lately about writing a book about computers. I won’t do it, of course, but I have thought a lot about it.

My computer book wouldn’t be about how to use a computer or how to buy a computer It would be made up of short essays and articles centered around how computers impact our lives in ways we never expected.

I would include articles I have written about how being a computer guy with regular clients is not a far stretch from being a doctor or therapist with regular patience. You may think that my patients are the computers that I work on each day, but what I do has more to do with helping people than with helping machines.

I received a call the other day from a client I have been working with for five years. His call was short, “Adam, I just want you to know that I am going into an operation tomorrow. They found a hemorrhage in my brain and they need to work on it. In case I don’t make it I need to make sure you know how to show my wife where the important stuff is in the computer.”

He came out of it just fine and I have already seen him a couple of times since the surgery, but I doubt many repair men get a call from their customers explaining that they may be leaving the earth and it is up to them to make sure that those surviving members of the family can find the Thanksgiving turkey in the bottom of the freezer.

Intimate is not a word I would have associated with the job of being a computer guy before I started this, but over the years, I have helped families stay in touch with their sons and daughters serving over seas, I have helped mothers discover what their teenage sons have been looking at on the computer, I have even helped seniors setup online personal ads for dating sites.

Strange and uncomfortable as these things may seem, they are not unusual at all for me. My job isn’t centered around repairing computers, I believe that computers are a tool and the more uses we find for them, the richer our lives can be.

The point of a computer is to use it in ways that free up more time so you don’t have to be around the computer as much. Every aspect of  life has elements that are boring and mundane and elements that we love and live for. If a computer can do the former, we can devote more effort to the latter.