Monday, September 15, 2003
I hate fax machines. I hate printers. And I HATE dishwashers.
See, I consider myself technically literate. Computers, the net, MP3s, DVDs, games, blah blah... all that stuff is easy and comes naturally. Mind you, I'm not THAT good -- I'm no programmer or hacker -- but I reckon I have a good understanding in most areas and at least know the basics in the advanced areas. Want me to turn some home movies into a DVD, complete with a proper menu system? No problem. Need a wireless broadband connection set up? Sure thing. But can I send a fax? Hell no.
For some reason, all that knowledge somehow doesn't translate into using other electrical devices. And this boggles the mind. There are some things that I really just can't figure out. Fax machines are the most recent example. Fax machines are vaguely simple -- put paper in, dial, watch paper feed through, finish -- but the problem is, they're so simple that even minor differences tend to be showstoppers. For example, some fax machines require that you get a dial tone before you dial the number. Some want you to punch in the number and then hit Start so it'll dial for you. And after it dials and connects, modem-style, some want you to hit Start to actually start sending a fax... while some don't. And hell, some do it all in utter silence so you don't even know whether it's dialing or whether it's got the right number or not. There are tons of differences between fax machines, and none of them TELL YOU what to do. There's never any indication of help anywhere on the device (really, how hard is it to flash the message "Press Start to send" on the fax's little screen?). Today I was totally caught out by the work fax machine because every machine that I'd used before usually wants the second page fed in as soon as it's done with the first. This one wants you to put all of the pages in first... but it doesn't tell you that. I think I sent the cover page three times before I figured that one out.
Dishwashers are another good example here. I pretty much never used my dishwasher in London because I could not for the life of me figure the thing out. It's simple enough, alright, with something like six buttons across the top... but what do any of them MEAN? One has an icon of two plates stacked on top of each other and a pot on top. Er, and that's supposed to tell me what? Another has a picture of a sprinkler. Common sense would indicate that that's the "Wash" button, but er... it's a dishwasher. Surely most of the buttons are dedicated to WASHING anyway? In any case, I did use the dishwasher once. All my dishes were coated with a uniform yellow slime layer. Needless to say, I never used it after that.
As for printers... we've all had our share of inexplicable printer problems (usually when we need to print something out), so I really don't need to elaborate here.
So what's the deal here: Am I just stupid, or are these supposedly "simpler" devices harder to use than your average PC?
Posted at 11:54 PM
