Friday, January 02, 2004
Happy New Year!
I'm not going to let you in on all my new year's resolutions, but there's one that merits a mention. It's part of my role to work towards better user experiences, to wards better technology that helps us in everyday life. One of the issues that currently vexes me is the terrible situation new PC owners find themselves in - they have machines with a Microsoft operating system on that is, according to Microsoft, in need of critical software updates. Their machines are insecure, vunerable to attack and misuse by others. And yet to update them (sorry, I mean bring them up to an acceptable standard), they have to connect to that very same internet and stay online for ages. This seems to me to be fundamentally wrong, and I'm wondering if the Sale of Goods Act in the UK covers it. Goods should be 'fit for their intended purpose' and these machines are patently not. So I'm planning to write a few letters to stores and distributors to bring this to their attention and ask what they intend to do about it - and if that fails, it may be fun to push it further. We have to stand up for our rights as consumers and users, after all. Could be an interesting year...
I'm not going to let you in on all my new year's resolutions, but there's one that merits a mention. It's part of my role to work towards better user experiences, to wards better technology that helps us in everyday life. One of the issues that currently vexes me is the terrible situation new PC owners find themselves in - they have machines with a Microsoft operating system on that is, according to Microsoft, in need of critical software updates. Their machines are insecure, vunerable to attack and misuse by others. And yet to update them (sorry, I mean bring them up to an acceptable standard), they have to connect to that very same internet and stay online for ages. This seems to me to be fundamentally wrong, and I'm wondering if the Sale of Goods Act in the UK covers it. Goods should be 'fit for their intended purpose' and these machines are patently not. So I'm planning to write a few letters to stores and distributors to bring this to their attention and ask what they intend to do about it - and if that fails, it may be fun to push it further. We have to stand up for our rights as consumers and users, after all. Could be an interesting year...
(c) 2003-2005 Russell Beale
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