Getting Back to Step Five by Craig Covello June 1, 2011
After dinner yesterday evening, a close friend asked me to help her install a new printer in her office. She works for a charitable organization known as Chab Dai. It's a nonprofit dedicated to shutting down sex trafficking and exploitation of young children throughout the world. http://www.chabdai.org/home.html Perhaps you have read Shannon Ivey's
article published May 29 on A Hollywood Republican entitled "Conspiracy of
Hope". http://www.hollywoodrepublican.net/2011/05/conspiracy-of-hope/ She poignantly explains this very ugly cancer known as human trafficking which seems to be pervasive across the globe, both in Third World countries as well as Western economic powers. As with any criminal activity, selling children in the sex trade to make a buck knows no boundaries. One can only hope that there will be a day of judgment for these people. In the meantime, organizations such as Chab Dai continue to fight the good fight.
So of course, I would offer my "technical expertise" in order to set up this printer. Anything to help, right? After all, how hard could it be? One wireless printer communicating with a Mac Mini and another MacBook Pro. Let the games begin.....
1. Unbox the new printer, plug it in and read the quick installation guide which contains only pictures. Lack of written instructions either suggests that this product is aimed at international consumption or that the installer is a moron. Read the rest if this piece and I'll let you decide. {:
2. Insert the CD containing the printer application software. That was easy.
3. Point, click and provide answers to a barrage of slightly ambiguous questions as the installation proceeds. Try to remember no less than four different passwords associated with computer logons as well as the wireless network. Things are getting a little more difficult, but manageable.
4. Print a test page from the Mac mini. Success!
5. Print a test page from the MacBook Pro. Success!
6. Print a test page from the MacBook Pro after logging off of the Mac mini. FAILURE..
7. Install the same printer application software on the Mac book Pro.
8. Spend the next 2 1/2 hours trying to fix the problem, only to make things worse.
9. Come to the realization that printers are destructive devices designed to inflict pain and suffering. Contemplate the solution demonstrated in the 1999 movie Office Space.
10. Realize that there is no way you can get back to step five. Won't happen.
At the end of the evening, I begin to empathize with songwriters who stumble across a top 10 hit early in their career, only to spend the rest of their days trying to duplicate the same success. I believe they're called one-hit wonders. Well, last night I became a one-hit wonder, at least as far as Samsung printers are concerned. It was embarrassing to say the least. But as with all adversity, there sometimes is a silver lining. The experience served as a metaphor and basis for this article.
You see, not having the experience and skill set to solve a specific technical problem on a specific brand of computer can have very poor outcomes. It doesn't matter if you're driven by ego, altruism, guilt or peer pressure. If you don't know what you're doing, you can make things dramatically worse. And if you continue to implement changes to the system instead of reversing course to a known "steady state", it's very likely that point will be reached in which there is no recovery without wiping the slate clean and starting over.
Yes, I'm sure that someone can get the printer working, but it begs a much larger question; what happens if a politician who lacks a basic understanding of global economic, political and military dynamics is catapulted to lead the most powerful nation in the free world? Can a President of the United States exercise such poor judgment and timing, in an attempt to navigate geopolitical waters, that he does irreparable damage to his own country? If he short-circuits the system of checks and balances that were brilliantly designed by the founders of this nation, do we reach a point of no return? I sincerely hope not.
But it's a question worth considering, because the Middle East is on fire while Israel is fighting for its very survival. Iran is uncomfortably close to having its own nuclear weapon while it teaches our neighbor, Venezuela, how to rattle sabers against Western democracy. Our borders are unsecured. This week's economic numbers were dismal and the unemployment rate remains at unacceptable levels. The nation is more politically polarized and angrier than any time since I've been alive. More Americans are dependent upon government handouts under this administration. Fair and balanced journalism is dead. And oh yes, the president insists on a borrowing more money to add to a $14.3 trillion national debt. We've mortgaged our children's future unless we monetize the the nation's financial obligations, but under that plan, inflation runs rampant causing harm to savings accounts and those on fixed income.
Yes, things are a mess right now on a scale that sometimes is hard to comprehend, which implies that it's important to get someone in the Oval Office who knows what they're doing when dealing with both domestic and foreign policy. So who's going to fix our nation in 2012? Romney? Pawlenty? Gingrich? Bachmann? Cain? Christie, if he decides to run? After all, the dynamics of the United States are infinitely more complicated than a Samsung printer. We can't afford to make another mistake.
We need to get back to step five.
6/2/2011 9:02:22 Paul Richards Agree? Yes Previous OWD Article:NSF: National Science Foundation AKA Non-Sufficient Funds |