Do you have a perfect computer?

Does anyone have a perfect computer? I mean really perfect, not just really nice, or really fast, or it's o.k. because those are usually followed up with but...

Take a moment and think about it. Do you have something be it an app or whatever on your computer that you do not use or rather can not use because it does not work? I am guessing that we all do. We have all downloaded something or even worse, bought and paid for something that does not deliver as advertised.

I have just spent the last hour (and that is on top of the other hours spent) trying to figure out how to make the news feed gadget on my Vista sidebar start showing current news again. It is stuck on May 12, 2009 (no it did not take me that long to figure out that it wasn't working and yes I have been trying to figure it out since then) and I still don't care that Sen Byrd has been sent to the hospital with an elevated temperature, or that Donald Trump is having a spat with Miss California. It was all valueless news then and it hasn't gotten any better with age.

So until I can figure out how to make it better or finding a working model, off it comes. Off the sidebar that is. I can't quite bring myself to delete it off completely. I wouldn't know how to restore it if I did. I might want it back some day because it was useful once. It use to update regularly like it was supposed to and provide fresh headlines with which to face the scary world we live in. Now I have to be content with being scared over and over by things that happened May 12th.

It is amazing that I spend as much time trying to keep up with the news as I do. It really doesn't seem to matter much one way or the other anyway. We went on a driving vacation awhile back and after two weeks on the road in the middle of the country listening to PBS' 'Wait, wait don't tell me' I was amazed at how many answers we knew for their quiz of current news events.

Amazed and disappointed at the same time. What a waste. Part of the reason for going on the road trip was to get away from all of the garbage that makes up the daily grind like the continual pummeling we take by exposing ourselves to a constant barrage of news feeds. If you are like me, you are getting it from all sides, newspaper, magazine, net, radio, television, and water cooler. Much of it is done in sound bites with very little depth or detail, hardly any real or accurate analysis, and much given with excessive regurgitation as if repetition with somehow make it more important or in some cases real.

So why should I get upset if my news feed reader on Microsoft Vista sidebar does not work if there is so little value added? It is a principle thing. It is a function that is a selling feature (or at least it was supposed to be something they were expecting to be useful or they wouldn't have put it in there) that if it is used or not should at least be able to be used by the user. O.K. that got a little wordy, but it is because my emotions are rising up a little. I just want my stuff to work like it is supposed to, that's all. Keep it simple and Let it Be.

So back to the original question and the original thought. Does anyone have a perfect computer, or more to the point do we even expect to have? Have we become so conditioned by incompatibilities or even inabilities of our computer products, that we just expect that bugs are standard issue, some things work and some things don't, get used to it cause that's just the way it is? Mediocrity reigns but it is the only game in town.

I guess I could bring up the whole Apple vs. Microsoft PC thing but I don't believe all the Apple hype anymore than I buy into Microsoft's. Even playing with a Mac in their store a few months ago I ran into a bug, and I am not overjoyed by their controlling nature anymore than I am with Microsoft's so why switch. Besides that their pricing structure sucks.

I could always try something new, buy a bare bones machine individual components, assemble then load with Linux or some variation there on. That I am sure would occupy endless hours of learning and reinventing the wheel while at the same time having the same experience of endless configuration in the search to make everything work just so. The idea of getting off the grid even if it is only figuratively does intrigue me but do I really want to spend that much time and effort if I only end up with the same frustrations?...Nah.

But that is why I bought a name brand box with name brand software preloaded in the first place. The market place was supposed to provide the engineering, research and development that would replace the frustration with experienced driven solutions so that I wouldn't have to. For this we pay big rates of hard earned dollars, and when it doesn't work is there any wonder there is disappointment.

I guess the other thing that nags me about all this, is that after paying the price and still having items that do not function, I still retain them. It is electronic and only takes up electronic space but it is the idea of it that I need to get over.

If you have a bread maker that no longer makes bread, do you hang on to it or do you throw it out? If it is repairable do you fix it, or do you let it sit there for awhile? Does it make a difference if it is physical object that gets in the way or if it is a physical object that is stuck way off in a corner, or in a shed, or in a crawl space where it is out of sight out of mind?

In other words, if an item has no value in it's current state, do you return it to a state of value (or at least try to) or decide that there is no longer value to be had and delete it from your world?

I must continually remind myself that value is not what you paid for something or the price tag that hangs on it, rather value is derived from what you get out of it. "Use it or lose it" is one of those phrases that has more than one meaning.

This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.