Pro Liberi

I tell people that are casual acquaintances or I am introduced to that I am an accountant because if I tell them I work with computers everyone thinks you can debug their issue with their XBox 360 connection via broadband or some other obscure issue and are not reticent at coming and asking. For some reason nobody seems to want to tell you their financial situation and ask your views on how they are doing.

However, a lot of people do know what I do for a living and I often get asked by people to help them with their issues. Some I can help and some I can’t. The one that is most common though is ‘What is the best computer to buy?’ They have for some reason decided to enter the digital age or have had a computer before but think it’s about time for a new one.

My first retort to this is ‘What do you want to use it for?’ That usually stops them in their tracks. They usually throw out a few uses such as letters, browsing the internet and maybe games. That makes me ask ‘What sort of games?’ If it’s Freecell or Solitaire then we don’t have any issues but if it’s the latest FPS or strategy game with an online component we have an issue. If you already have a computer that browses the internet, has a word processor and has these games then there is actually no reason to update to the latest version because you are going to get little benefit from it. Sure it will be faster, look nicer and have the latest add ons but it will cost you about 1K on average and the bloatware you will be adding by upgrading to Vista and Office 2007 will bring the speed right back down. Best add a new HDA (Hard Disk) and extra memory to your existing system. A very cost effective upgrade. But never upgrade the OS. If you do that you really should be buying a new system completely.

However, if you want the latest games then be prepared to pay for a good solid piece of kit. Lots of memory, large HDA and large screen. Of course you won’t be able to transfer the applications you’ve bought, you will need to upgrade even though you won’t actually use more than one or two of the hundreds of new ‘features’.

Most home users who buy new actually don’t need the latest kit though and should actually consider buying a second hand one or one of the lower spec new models. At this time that is fraught with issues as even the lower spec new ones don’t come with XP any more. It’s all Vista. Of course buying second hand has its own issues for entry into the digital age unless you have a very good friend in computers or it’s a family member or close friend upgrading that has the spare system that they would ordinarily be throwing away. You could buy Apple but they are still really expensive but worth considering if you have the money as there are several benefits and Linux is still too complex for uninitiated users.

It wasn’t that long ago that computers were not considered so readily for disposal but with the big corporations rapid upgrade path, Microsoft’s software upgrade policy and legislation on second hand kit it’s more common to just throw away the old one now than to attempt to reuse it. Doing someone else a favour can come back and haunt you if you make even a simple mistake.

Personally I am interested in one of these cheap computers intended for third world countries with a wind up power supply. That coupled with several DVDs of PDFs and web snapshots stored correctly would be of use in a survival situation when ordinary PCs would be useless. Not seen any for sale anywhere.

Of course, it’s not just computers that are shiny. New DVD recorders, Plasma TVs and other electronic kit. Although they don’t have the same software issues as PCs just consider if you really need the new bit of kit in the current economic climate.

Bear in mind I’m not saying don’t upgrade. I’m saying don’t upgrade to keep the corporations profits up. Let them innovate and give us something worth the money before you part with your hard earned cash.

On the positive side if you are considering upgrading then you clearly are one of the better off and the computer industry will be grateful for your contribution. Things are getting a bit tight out there. Maybe Microsoft should consider giving us something useful.

The human brain is a wonderful machine.     It has enabled us to plan, organise and build our way to the the pinnacle of our society.  Earth 1999.   It is a miracle of evolution.

But it is not perfect.   It has an inbuilt error mechanism.  Some that actually provides a positive function, in some ways, intuition and in addition wishful thinkin’.  Read here.   It seems that wishful thinking plays a bigger part in our decision making processes than I realised until now.  Intuition in the mind of the unskilled is merely mental coin tossing while wishful thinking is the way to override facts.

You see I was trying to rationalise the feel good euphoria that has swept the US since Obama came to power.  I didn’t think he would do it because he was new, untried, and had no real policies but he still won.     I was amazed, after the US watching the disaster that was the UK after 11 years of a snake oil salesman and they follow in our footsteps by electing one themselves.   How did that happen?    Don’t they pay attention to what is going on?  Yet after only a few weeks many were watching his policies being implemented in horror.  Even some of his own side were backing away and he hasn’t really had the chance to really screw anything up yet.  Don’t worry though he will.  Wishful thinking that change means good.    Change can be both good and bad.  Good for politicians bad for people for example.

So much for the wisdom of crowds.  A philosophy I believed in up to now.   I’ve now come to realise that marketing and wishful thinking have a bigger impact on our logical processes than you would think possible.    Perfectly reasonable people who work daily with facts and make decisions based on those facts worth millions will ignore facts and go for wishful thinking when their beliefs point in other directions.

Gun control, social justice, child poverty, the poor and the list goes on.   Politicians pull a few strings in speeches by implying things and lying when required and they use key emotive words like ‘Think of the children’ and people allow themselves to be diverted from what logic says and go with their wishful thinking that it is the right thing to do.    Most of the time it does not hold up logically either and due to our poor schooling some don’t even think logically or have enough intellect to see the gaping holes.    In fact they argue that the emperor has clothes where clearly none exists because they want to believe.  They need to and don’t want to discuss it and confuse the issue with facts.

Our socialist government here in the UK has unveiled it’s latest plans for making us all slaves of the state.    It’s mortgaged off our children’s futures.   Children currently being pushed around in prams and learning to walk have debts that will take until they are 30 years old to pay off. Nobody was thinking of the children then and now it’s way to late.  Yet it comes as no surprise every socialist government in the UK ends the same way.   This one is just the worst in history.  How can anyone morally justify slavery in this day and age is beyond my simple mind.

You would think we have learnt from the last few years but we have not.      Our opposition party is based on the same marketing principles and, so as not to upset us too much, is actually selling the same snake oil with a few added ingredients to make it more palatable.     Still the same heavy stodge on the stomach though.       That is why our opposition is barely in the lead in the polls when they are actually in competition with the most hated party ever.  Even core party supporters are objecting to what is going on in both parties.

But you can be sure that next election time the marketing will be in full flow and the core people will fall in line behind their parties as before.  Forgetting completely the lies that were told before with the wishful thinking that ‘They have learnt their lessons’ and ‘It won’t happen again’.  Our logic that says they have lied in every aspect of their time in office pushed aside by wishful thinking that things will be different this time.

In my opinion wishful thinking is the most powerful force on this planet and easily manipulated by unscrupulous people and there is nothing we can do.  You would think after what happened in the 1940s nobody would queue up to take a shower yet I bet most of the UK would if it came down to it.     Like lambs to the slaughter.

On the plus side.  All these things go in cycles, and several things could happen.   We could go back a few steps on the path for our species.  We could revolt.   Politicians could change.   We will likely just go on the way were are.   But regardless, things will change eventually and we will step past this point and go forward again.    Technology will drive it.   I wish I could say I see us learning from the experience we go through but I can’t.  In the distant future the 20th and 21st centuries will go down as a dark bit of history when people were oppressed by governments and socialism was tried and failed miserably several times.   People will learn it in school and then go on and do the same things again because they just know it will be better this time because we just need to try harder.  The last lot were not true believers and it is the right thing to do.

So head down and get inventing something that will save us from governments.   There is a lot still to be discovered.

It’s hard to believe that what causes us the most grief nowadays is our own brains.    Talk about double edged swords.  I don’t see a way around it myself until we are better educated.    Mmmm.  That does explain the current government stance on education though.