I know they’re unlikely to be cheap, but there’s a PCWorld 200m from my house, so last night, as I was trying to set up a new computer, and I found at 7.45pm that I needed a serial cable not supplied, I thought that I’d just nip out and get it there. Whizzed into the doors just before they closed, found a staff member hiding amidst the racks, thought “great”. Until I saw the pirce-tag: £20 (or of course £19.99). For a bit of wire and two plugs that was, I decided, just a little too ridiculous, so I came home without the cable.
Then I looked it up on Amazon; £3 for a longer one, with four plugs, not two.
The task has left me musing: “Whatever happened to ‘Plug ‘n’play”. Several years ago it was what everyone was advertising, but it must have provoked so many angry phonecalls, and maybe suits for false advertising, that computer companies dropped it. Why should it still be so complicated trying to transfer a few files from one computer to another? Why doesn’t the cable (which would only cost the manufacturers a few pence) come with the computer?!
If you hear a rhythmic soft squelching sound today that will be me beating my head against the wall.
Note for burglars: new computer is a Morgan cheapie; definitely not worth the effort….
About
2 Comments