NON-TECHIES, HAVE FAITH

Have you ever sworn at your computer, threatening to chop it up into little piece because it messes up your work, crashes at the worst times, doesn't do what the program tells you it should do plus a host of other annoyances? Are you convinced that the people who wrote the manuals and the "help" material have never actually followed their own instructions to see if they really worked? Do you ever regret how much time you have wasted trying to get the computer to do what it's supposed to do? The following gospel might not solve your computer problems, but it will give you some consolation that you're not alone in your frustrations. Walter Mossberg is the Personal Technology Columnist for the Wall St. Journal. For many years he has been giving sound and realistic advice to the public on a wide range of electronic products and services. Indeed, his might be the most popular and worthwhile column in the Journal. This is his mantra: "ATTENTION NON-TECHIES: Don't be embarrassed by your problems with computers...Just remember, you're not a "dummy," no matter what those computer books books claim. The real dummies are the people who, though technically expert, couldn't design hardware and software that are usable by normal consumers if their lives depended on it." Hail Walter! He speaks for all of us. And note also: If our cars were as unreliable as computers, we'd all be roadkill.