There’s a reason

There’s a reason why Apple is stealing market share from the personal computer market. There’s a reason for everything, except for divine miracles- those are best left to being unexplained. In business, for sure, things happen for a reason and there are consequences. A consequence is neither good nor bad- it just is. (con⋅se⋅quence –noun (1) the effect, result, or outcome of something occurring earlier: The accident was the consequence of reckless driving, (2) an act or instance of following something as an effect, result, or outcome).

True story #1: eight months ago my daughter bought a Mac Book. She brought it home, unpacked it, turned on the power- voila! Everything worked perfectly and instantly. I gave her the WEP Key to connect to our wireless router and she was off and running. As simple as turning on a TV.

Let me tell you about a consequence of using Microsoft Vista- true story #2 and fresh in my mind. Yesterday, my wife and I went to a local tech store and purchased a new Sony Vaio laptop. Like they say in the latest Microsoft ads, we got a pretty good deal. Now, the reason why we bought a PC is pretty simple: lower cost than a Mac, about 50% lower. Truthfully, and not to rub salt in my wife’s wounds, I had strongly suggested for months that we overspend and get the Mac. We should have. Here’s what happened-

My wife unpacks the computer, and follows to a ‘T’ the set up instructions, including Connecting To The Internet, which uses, of course, Microsoft Internet Explorer. We have high speed DSL from Comcast and the wireless router. She’s in the room with the router and my home office is in another room twenty feet away. So far, so good.

But, when I go into my office just a bit later to use my laptop, I can’t connect. Why? Because Microsoft IE has renamed and reconfigured our network connection into a LAN with encryption keys. The network now runs through my wife’s laptop, and I don’t get a signal directly from the router. I have to go through her laptop with a new network name and path. This is what the path diagram is showing me. Fortunately, my wife meticulously wrote down everything she could, including the Security Key. So, I try to connect using that- no luck. I run numerous troubleshooting exercises, numerous Security Key entries, etc., etc., etc., all to no avail. I cannot get on the internet now. Thirty minutes earlier it was no problem. Only now, with Microsoft IE taking control of everything I am locked out. We try reconnecting and renaming on my wife’s new machine- no luck. It is set in stone.

OK, now, let’s see if Sony can help…nope, their phone number is only for warranty issues. There are no help numbers. And, absolutely no manuals for anything included with the computer.

OK, let’s try Microsoft help…umm, nope. Their instructions just take us back through the exact same fix suggestions that we’ve already tried. Hey, want to actually pay for Microsoft to fix the problem? We don’t. We didn’t cause it. But they want us to.

I am constantly astounded by the crap that comes out of this company. It’ s clear that the Apple ads, those poking fun at the challenges and shortcomings of a PC, are right on. After twenty plus years, a consumer should not have to be a techie to get a new computer set up. With Apple, you don;t. It should be a relatively pain free experience or process. Nothing with Microsoft is pain free. It’s a hassle injection.

So, now I’m a bit stumped. What exactly is the reason behind the bad consequence we experienced with our new laptop? There must be one or more reasons…only a techie knows for sure. And to that end, we’re going to have to shell out $50 more tomorrow to get the problem fixed. That way, I won’t have to get up at 6:00am again to visit a local coffee shop to get some work done and use their internet connection.

© 2009 Peter E. McDowell
PERFORMA Business Development
Different View/ Better Results
pete@performabusdev.com
Web @ http://www.performabusdev.com
Blog @ http://petemcd.wordpress.com/
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There’s a reason

There’s a reason why Apple is stealing market share from the personal computer market. There’s a reason for everything, except for divine miracles- those are best left to being unexplained. In business, for sure, things happen for a reason and there are consequences.