Yank My Chain

If you do that, when it comes to American (or American-origin) computer systems, be prepared for a rant from me!

It is amazing that, no matter how often I tell people that I work almost exclusively with British-designed computer systems, they still come to me when they (inevitably) have problems with their American -- generally Microsoft-based -- computers.

Now, as it happens, I do have a fair knowledge of some of those systems, but it is incomplete and, quite frankly, I believe that you reap what you sow when getting one of those. No wonder there are so many people making a killing out of supporting "ignorant" users of them!

If you end up buying an American-origin system, whether Microsoft, Apple or Unix/Linux based (in order of increasing quality!), generally with an Intel processor (or equivalent from e.g. AMD) at its heart, then be prepared to need frequent assistance from highly-paid "experts". It goes with the territory. As far as I am concerned, it's all "Yank Junk" (a term I am never afraid to apply, even in company) and -- especially the first of those -- has been responsible for killing-off virtually all innovation in the computer market: there is simply no point in making the effort to create something to compete with an American giant, as it will go nowhere and probably bankrupt the innovator(s).

It's effectively a stagnant market -- lots of sales, but all of essentially the same relatively few products.


Here at Chateau John, I have several computers, all but one running the British RISC OS system. Since being elected to Medway Council, I have had to get a Microsoft-based machine as well, to handle those few file types whose structure is so proprietary that I cannot access them any other way (no genuine open standards when it comes to, say, PowerPoint files!) -- but otherwise I keep to my British computers, on which all my important work is done. This includes everything from email and website maintenance to creating our (very high quality!) ward newsletters and all written correspondence.

My system keeps a record of all 'phone calls, in and out (not the content itself, just when and from/to whom!) and all faxes are sent and stored in electronic form: I have never had a paper-based fax. It was our market that created the first electronic fax for home and business users, known as FaxPack; the world-famous Sibelius was created here on our system (Most famous for playing to Princess Diana) -- and indeed, the RiscPC running it became popularly known as the "Sibelius computer"!

The famous games Elite and Zarch (renamed for other computer systems) originated here, as did smooth unjagged-edge text (licensed by the British to Microsoft, though they never really understood it so rather botched their implementation!) and the iconbar (or TaskBar as some now call it) way back in 1988. There is even a long-running website in our market that is called the IconBar, and rightly so. We invented this, no-one else!

We also had pop-up (at the mouse pointer position) "walking menus" -- despised by the computer press when introduced here, but when put into Windows 95 suddenly became a Good Thing, despite the fact that theirs were fixed in place, often obscuring the work one was editing. Naturally, our menus could always be dragged anywhere one wanted...

Yes, the technical press seemed very keen to promote the vastly inferior (as it was) American Way over and above our own products, and that was part of the reason the competition to the Yank Junk was effectively killed off. Extremely aggressive marketing by the megabucks corporations, despite widespread criticism and various (successful, though limited in punitive effect) lawsuits against them on anti-competitiveness grounds, forced out a lot of very good and innovative ideas -- and that's where we have ended up today. The situation should be so much better, with Transputers, different Operating Systems in abundance (though adhering fully to "open standards") and a generally much healthier marketplace open to new and competitive ideas and products.

Despite all the pressures to do so, I have not changed over myself and never will. I have to edit this 'blog on the Microsoft machine (for technical reasons not of my making it isn't really feasible on my "proper" computers, at least not easily) but my long-standing Councillor and Personal websites and produced entirely on my British computers. Okay, those are now rather old-fashioned, and I have the tools to do so much more with them if I wished to do so; but they work and I am content to leave them as they are. They have certainly earned a lot of respect and interest over these past six years and more...

Therefore, Dear Reader, if you have a problem with a computer, and think I am just a cheap/free way of fixing it (as some have freely admitted when approaching me), I have to disappoint you. If it isn't a RISC OS system, I really do not want to know. It was your choice in the first place, and it is now your problem. Too many times I have tried to advise, and been told effectively that I am wrong, yet I know what I am talking about.

The sheer lack of understanding of basics is what causes the vast majority of problems and issues, added to the strange way some things are done on these "foreign" systems (most un-intuitive, I often find!) and sheer laziness, when it so much easier to call on "an expert" to talk them through something they should already be fully capable of doing for themselves. We do not seem to suffer much if any of these kinds of issues in our market, interestingly, as discussions with other users (including a few we have here in Medway, which is encouraging!) repeatedly demonstrate to me.

Instead of Intel-chipped computers running (typically) Microsoft systems, those who can and do think for themselves opt for something completely different. Perhaps this isn't altogether surprising: after all, Intel isn't even half of Intelligence...


[Note: all proprietary trademarked names mentioned in this post are hereby acknowledged.]