01/29/03

PC Fear Factor Feedback
By Alan Luber

Since publishing PC Fear Factor, I have received comments from three types of readers: my target audience, PC experts, and people who I collectively refer to as nattering nabobs of negativity.

Feedback from my target audience has been absolutely effusive. One reader, Paul Nielan, tells me that he purchased two copies - one for home and one for work. (I have urged him to buy a summer house.)  Another reader (Marilyn from Sydney, Australia), who also read some of my articles on personal finance, requested that I write Personal Finance Fear Factor, applying the same treatment to personal finance as I did to PC disaster prevention and recovery.

The second group, PC experts, take the macho approach to disaster recovery. They disagree with my advice to PC users to backup their hard disk. "I can rebuild my hard disk from scratch in an hour," they all tell me. With all due respect, you people are living in your own little world. You represent about one hundredth of a percent of all people who use computers, and it astounds me that you fail to understand that 99.99% of the people who use computers don't have the skills required to do as you suggest. I am glad you have the skills to rebuild your hard disk from scratch in an hour, but please stop dispensing your harmful advice to others.

Another so-called expert told me that hard disks never crash and that I was doing readers a mis-service by suggesting that their hard disk may ever fail. To him, I would like to point out that Dell Computer replaced my hard disk again on January 28, 2003 - my fourth hard disk in two and a half years. Now it is true that I wear out more hard disks than the typical user - my computer is in use 12 to 14 hours a day, seven days a week. Hard disks are extremely reliable, but give me a break - the hard disk is an electromechanical device that absolutely will fail, given enough time and use.

The nattering nabobs of negativity say, "People aren't going to do what they should do just because you tell them to do it." I must admit they have a point. A large number of people will continue their disaster-prone ways until disaster strikes. Some will refuse to reform their ways even after experiencing the mother of all computer disasters. I have no sympathy for these people. But again, they are not my target audience. The people who buy PC Fear Factor fall into one of two categories: those who want to be proactive in preventing computer disasters, and those who have learned too late that they should have been proactive. But at least they have learned and are now taking action.

Some of the most disconcerting comments have been made by computer talk show hosts - people who are supposed to know better. I have appeared on more than a dozen radio shows, and I have been absolutely aghast at some of the advice these experts have dispensed to their listeners. One host opined that firewalls are unnecessary because home users are unlikely to be targets of hackers. He was completely oblivious to the fact that most people are targets of opportunity, rather than targets of choice. Another host suggested that users turn off the Windows System Restore feature to save hard disk space - a sure invitation to computer disaster. It's scary to think that some people may actually be acting on such advice.

What can I say, except that in the end, I only care about the people I care about - my target audience - non-technical end users who want an understandable, executable, comprehensive guide to personal computer disaster prevention and recovery. And I thank them for their warm comments.

 

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