Computers Everywhere

By Charlie Bovaird

Do you know when you have purchased a computer?

The simple computer in your stove—(have you bought a new electric stove lately?) It comes with a built in computer. The difference between the stove computer and your personal computer is that the stove computer performs a very limited set of functions, maybe ten-to-fifteen. If you read the instructions, usually two or three times, then performed each operation, you eventually convince yourself that you understand how they work. Two years later the number display reads

!_ !_! !_
_! ! ! !_!

and none of the button controls do anything. The paperwork that came with the stove was not useful in resolving this problem. Maybe a $100 service call would solve the problem.

You unplug and re-plug the stove into the power outlet, like we sometimes do with our PC (hope your stove is not hard wired). This action does not reset it. You can not find a user manual among the paperwork you meticulously saved when you purchased the stove. Next, you go to the manufacturer’s web site and download a user manual. Near the last page, you read something about a ‘Sabbath Mode’ and how to reset the stove’s computer pressing two buttons simultaneously. A computer-reset button on the back of the stove —or better on the front—would have been more noticeable and convenient. Maybe a $3 computer display could display the characters ‘SAB’ better than one designed to display numbers only. I would rather have a visible reset button.

Enter the (complex) PC. It has millions of functions and you can add millions more by installing more application programs. Worse than that, they change the operating system programs quite frequently. If you do not care to learn how to manage your computer—its operating system, your application programs, and your data—you will find that others will manage it for their own purposes, sometimes contrary to your wishes.

Now, if you want the vast flexibility of a computer, you will commit yourself to an unending learning program. So come join DACS and help us help you become an informed computer user.