This month, my laptop (the first one I have ever had) completes six years of service. Perhaps IBM (now, no longer IBM, but Lenovo) should give me an award for persistence. On the other hand, I have used Windows XP all along (now, no longer Windows XP, but failed Vista, followed by Windows 7), so perhaps Microsoft should. Or, perhaps, the guy who sold me the laptop should be getting some flak from his boss for not tempting me with an upgrade, but then he has gone through three more jobs in the last six years. Then, the dealer (his boss), who sold me the laptop, is no longer a dealer, but has shut shop because of thinning margins.
Well, you get the gist. Everything (pointlessly) changes all the time, of course. Except my laptop. It has now become rather old and slow, much like an old man walking down a high-traffic stairway, holding onto the railing of predictability.
I am not emotional about things in general & would gladly let go of a product if it had outlived its utility or had been worn to its soles, yet there is an underlying environmental responsibility for full usage - after all, like most people I know, all that we use is the Office Suite in its most basic form. This laptop, old as he is, needs to use only about 10% of his potential to deal with me (which gives you an idea of just how tech savvy I am). Much of our dissatisfaction with computers is because of their speed, or rather, the superior speed of newer computers, when contrasted with the one you own. I call this 'engineered dissatisfaction' - a term I use for the egregious efforts of intelligent engineers and product managers who, in their effort to maximise profits for their corporations, encourage people to buy new computers without bothering about what they could do with the old one. They do this knowing fully well that the potential customer is rarely using the full product, but can be tempted with the Apple in the garden (no pun, of course, intended).
By using my laptop over this inordinate period and speaking about it, I am making a statement - to anyone who'd care to listen. Think. Before you buy.
