Imagine if your car stalled now and then while you are on the freeway, or 2nd gear just disappeared, or your battery went flat before you reached your client.
So why do we tolerate it when high-tech IT does that to us?
Technology is great when it works as it should. I am convinced that technology is vindictive and will turn on you when you need it most, like when you absolutely must send an urgent quotation by webmail, or you need to look up a client’s phone number, you get: “Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage” or Chrome tells you: “Unable to connect to the Internet.”
If you thought gravity sucks, try finding a signal when it is pouring rain and your car has broken down: they collude. Now that really sucks. You may even find that your service provider’s network coverage map shows that the LTE signal ends just inside your neighbour’s property.
And when you desperately need to open that quotation that your colleague shared with you on Google Drive, your Telkom LTE just keeps saying:
Has your cell phone ever died while you are at a client’s? They kindly offer to lend you their charger but no one’s charger plug fits your phone. Have you noticed how many different USB plugs there are, and all of them are wrong for your device.
Passwords, two factor authentication, usernames, login profiles, 128k encryption, OTPs, PUKs… STOP! I just want to use the program! ”Your password is too weak. It must me a minimum of 8 characters long. You must use a combination of numbers, special characters and both upper and lower case letters.”
How on earth am I going to remember all my passwords? Oh, and don’t use your birthday or phone number, or child’s name. ”Your password is secret, don’t forget it, if you lose it we can’t help you, we don’t know what it is.” ”Your password will expire in three days, replace it with one that is in no way similar to the old one.” …and remember the new one too.
Which brings us to phishing and cybercrime, you know, where they track your keystrokes to steal your login details. Or they send you emails purporting to come from your bank telling you to ‘Click here’ to “prevent a security breach that could compromise your account.”
Then when your airtime runs out, you can’t buy more airtime because you don’t have any airtime to use your banks app.
Or, the time that the shop assistant assured you you that this expensive investment of a laptop will be absolutely perfect for any work that you need it to do. But when you have finally got it installed and configured and start to use it, it’s an absolute dog!
And now, your new state-of-the-art computer doesn’t ‘support’ your perfectly good two year old printer, and, of course, you can’t find a driver for it online.
Then, as you would expect, it works just fine in the middle of the night when you should be resting and not working.
Sometimes we believe (or advertising persuades us) that we can’t do without the latest technology. But, are you sure that the latest must-have high-tech is the best tool to get the job done right? Let me explain: Scientific American bust the urban legend that NASA spent millions on developing a pen that would work in zero-gravity space, whilst the Russians used a good, old-fashioned pencil.
The moral of the story: don’t let the tech hype suck you in.
2014/05/15
Click here if you want to discuss how we can help you with IT.
Can you suggest an innovative solution to a frustrating problem that doesn’t require high-tech?