Keep it simple, stupid

I used to have respect for HP, when I was at uni their products stood for engineering quality and reliability. Twenty-five years later it's difficult to have any respect for a company that releases such bloated software.

A client yesterday asked me to set up an Officejet 7410, this is quite a good multifunction printer with wireless networking built in. The client couldn't get the printer to talk over his wireless network.

It only took a few minutes for me to get it right, but I work on this stuff all the time. The computer based options returned a "networking not supported function". I had to use the menu on the printer to setup the WPA security.

That in itself was a frustration, just to nark me more there was an irritating error in the HP Director software about an XML skin not being installed. This is just irrelevant fairy floss which I ignore but customers quite rightly worry about.

The fun really started when I went to set up the printer on another PC. The setup would go through three stages before returning a "the copy functions cannot be used" error.

Beauty.

All up it took me 45 minutes to install the printer. This is ludicrous for a simple, consumer product.

Some of the problem include their links not working on the support website, an estimated time of up to 35 minutes to install, a 240Mb download and installing the .Net framework.

Oh, and the thing requires a reboot every time the setup fails.

All this for a stupid bloody printer.

The key to reliable computing is to keep it simple. The failure of vendors to do this is the number one reason why consumers get upset and computers fail.

I've said before I'd like to see executives held responsible for their dodgy products. Vyomesh Joshi, Executive Vice President of HP's Printing and Imaging group received three million dollars in options last year.

I'd like to see Vyomesh's bonuses tied to how long it takes his grandmother to setup one of his consumer products.

This is what I like about Apple; simplicity. Steve Jobs gets it, Vyomesh Joshi doesn't.

Too many Geeks and Nerds

At a car park on Friday I noticed cars from SIX other support companies. That on it's own should show how crowded the IT support market currently is.

But I'm not cranky about the number of tech businesses fighting in the marketplace: It's about their names.

There's too many Geeks and Nerds: Geeks R Us, Geeks To The Rescue, Geeks On Call, Geeks Central, Geek Chick, Nerds Downunder, Corporate Nerds, Neighbourhood Nerds. I could go on and on and on with variations on this theme.

What these guys don't get is that the term "Geek" or "Nerd" is not a compliment. Some people get upset when they are called a nerd.

Quite rightly too. The term "nerd" or "geek" implies a sexually inadequate young man who gets off on fixing obscure computer problems. To the average person, this indicates your tech will fix your computer because they enjoy tinkering with computers, not because they want to get paid.

I'd suggest the computer tech industry is the only industry where the participants gleefully use a term that's an insult to them.

It's time to drop the "Nerd" and "Geek" names, they are lame and devalue your skills and services. Be proud of your talents and find a name that reflects what you do and the fact you do it well.