Be nice to your computer.

At our lodge we get all sorts of guests and many of them have an interesting story to tell. On New Years Eve we had a very nice American guy who worked in the IT-business. He had done several jobs but was now specialised in solving computer problems for people. As a computer user who knows not too much about the actual computer I found this interesting and we started talking.

On his question what kind of computer I have I answered “no idea, a normal one” and he gave me a compassioned look. His next question was how my relationship with my computer was. I found it a strange question but answered

truthfully that this varied a lot. He smiled knowingly. Finally he wanted to know who solves the problems if the computer doesn’t work. Corné knows a bit more about computers as I do, so when the computer doesn’t do what I want, Corné solves the problem. When I told him that he reacted that he already thought so.

He started telling that every person has a small electric charge. As an example he mentioned the shock that you sometimes get when you touch metal objects. Some people have this more than others and it changes per day. According to his theory this electric charge has an effect on the keyboard of the computer and can cause problems that way. This explains why you sometimes get problems and sometimes not, even if you do exactly the same. It also explains why it sometimes helps if another person works on the computer to solve the problem. He told me that it happened regularly that he came to people to solve their computer problems but that the problems did not occur when he was there, almost as if the computer was working better already just because he was there. Although I found that a little far fetched, I must admit that I have had that same experience more then once when I asked Corné to have a look at the computer because it didn’t do what I wanted. More than once it worked perfectly for him, which left me frustrated.

The advice of our guest was to be nicer to your computer. Apparently, being nice has an influence on your electric charge, which would cause your computer to work better. After that the conversation went on about the out of date technology of the keyboard and why speech controlled computers are not commonly used yet. Our guest declared that he hoped to see the first computer designed only by women. He expected this computer to be much more intuitive then the computers we use now. Now that would be something!

I am quite down to earth and I must admit I have some doubts about some of the things he said. After all a computer is nothing but a machine, which reacts to the commands it gets. But then again, it doesn’t cost anything and there might be a little truth in it. So maybe I should be a little nicer to my computer in future…

regards from the bush
Miriam