learning: Computer Hell

"The greatest freedom is freedom from information." - Peter Gabriel

Like the phrase "Computer Hell" itself, this short essay is an overdramatization for effect. It intends to give fair warning to buyers of media workstations. And it offers consolation to workstation and computer users who experience difficulties. They could write this piece themselves. Computing is about manipulating information with technology. Workstation users want tools that serve their purposes transparently. The truth seems to be that that's a goal which can usually but not always be achieved.

High technology is wonderful. Its tools help us to perform tasks that otherwise would take us longer or would simply be impossible. Those tools are essential to much of whatever success, prosperity and satisfaction we enjoy in our work. But there is another, darker side to these tools, especially when they involve computers. Everyone who has used a DAW or other software-based device for a while has experienced certain unromantic adventures -- horrors, sometimes -- that might be said to take place somewhere in the inner or outer reaches of Computer Hell. The experiences may include crashes, freezes, anomalies, bug leavings, unexplained phenomena, undocumented features, points of fright, workaround mazes, and other realms of confusion. The experiences can resemble dealing with unhappiness of other kinds -- unrequited love, pain, disease, the monthly bills, an uncertain future, careening change, the madness within us all, etc. They can sometimes be like heartbreak that dashes one's fondest hopes and dreams, that chews at the core of our greatest comforts. They can seem as unavoidable as change itself, mortality, or the eventual end of humankind as we know it. They're not as significant as most of those phenomena, of course, but still...they can be a pain!

If you work with machines, sooner or later something will wear out, fail, get corrupted, or otherwise break. If that machine is a computer and depends upon software, so much more complex may be the puzzle that faces you, so much more racking may be your pain, so much more overwhelming may be your despair, frustration, and anger. It would be prudent of us not to be overoptimistic about this; to say that sooner or later you will be a visitor to Computer Hell. Dante wrote in The Inferno, on the sign over the Gates of Hell: "Abandon hope all ye who enter here." That's the kind of place we're talking about. Beware!

You won't die there, of course; won't even suffer the worst pains that mortals can suffer; won't even be traumatized for the rest of your life. In fact you'll probably not only get out alive but will also quickly resume a decent life. While you're There, however, even if you're an experienced visitor and have escaped before, you may feel that you'll never get out, and you may feel that no pain could be greater. It's no joke then. If some of what we've written here seems like overstatement to you now, then try reading it while you're in the throes. It's a condition that calls for this purple and blue prose.

What else is Computer Hell? It's a place for which everyone who buys a DAW volunteers, wittingly or unwittingly. You may be delivered there by a problem with your computer platform, software, misinformation, by an error or oversight in product design or documentation...by any of a number of outside causes. More often than not, however, you'll be delivered there by your most formidable enemy - an enemy that sometimes no dealer, manufacturer, colleague, user group samaritan or friend can enable you to avoid; an enemy which no prior experience with simpler, more "normal" computer software and hardware can help you to combat. That enemy is you - your own ignorance or error.

Your journey to this miserable place can begin innocently enough - with the first ad that you see for a product, or with an exciting demo. Throughout your buying process you may remain blissfully unaware of what's ahead. Your sweet oblivion may continue during the installation of your system, then during your first steps along the Learning Curve, and even during the steps that follow after. But sooner or later calamity will strike - perhaps when you think you have this workstation thing licked, maybe when you have a client with you, enjoying your mastery, or when a deadline is looming, or when money or an account stand to be lost.

OK, the point has been made. It's time to back off this overdramatizing. Although some users who are in the throes of this pain can fairly say that we're understating (we've certainly seen unpleasant things happen), most DAW users get along happily enough. At worst the experience is survivable, and help can be found when needed. A good dealer will help, surely. Good training will help, too, as will good documentation, and competent technical support by manufacturers, user groups, and your dealer. Especially helpful will be your own common sense and experience. Once DAW users are no longer beginners, they begin to get good both at avoiding difficulties and at finding their ways out of unavoidable ones. Some combination of these resources will usually help you so much and so promptly, in fact, that your difficulties simply won't amount to much.

Should this talk of trouble discourage you? No. Even after the worst of experiences, users invariably say that no way would they trade in their new tools for their old ones. Computer Hell? Workstation Hell? We've been there. You'll be there. Sooner or later you'll escape, as everyone does. Those unpleasant places are just the dark side of the usefulness, the value, the ingenuity, the power, the range, and lots of times the plain fun that computer-based tools bring to you and your work.

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	jaws of DAWs? (centuries old; artist unknown) COMPUTER HELL Hazards on the Audio Cyberspace Frontier "The greatest freedom is freedom from information." - Peter Gabriel Like the phrase "Computer Hell" itself, this short essay is an overdramatization for effect. It intends to give fair warning to buyers of media workstations. And it offers consolation to workstation and computer users who experience difficulties. They could write this piece themselves. Computing is about manipulating information with technology. Workstation users want tools that serve their purposes transparently. The truth seems to be that that's a goal which can usually but not always be achieved. High technology is wonderful. Its tools help us to perform tasks that otherwise would take us longer or would simply be impossible. Those tools are essential to much of whatever success, prosperity and satisfaction we enjoy in our work. But there is another, darker side to these tools, especially when they involve computers. Everyone who has used a DAW or other software-based device for a while has experienced certain unromantic adventures -- horrors, sometimes -- that might be said to take place somewhere in the inner or outer reaches of Computer Hell. The experiences may include crashes, freezes, anomalies, bug leavings, unexplained phenomena, undocumented features, points of fright, workaround mazes, and other realms of confusion. The experiences can resemble dealing with unhappiness of other kinds -- unrequited love, pain, disease, the monthly bills, an uncertain future, careening change, the madness within us all, etc. They can sometimes be like heartbreak that dashes one's fondest hopes and dreams, that chews at the core of our greatest comforts. They can seem as unavoidable as change itself, mortality, or the eventual end of humankind as we know it. They're not as significant as most of those phenomena, of course, but still...they can be a pain! computer bug in search of victim? If you work with machines, sooner or later something will wear out, fail, get corrupted, or otherwise break. If that machine is a computer and depends upon software, so much more complex may be the puzzle that faces you, so much more racking may be your pain, so much more overwhelming may be your despair, frustration, and anger. It would be prudent of us not to be overoptimistic about this; to say that sooner or later you will be a visitor to Computer Hell. Dante wrote in The Inferno, on the sign over the Gates of Hell: "Abandon hope all ye who enter here." That's the kind of place we're talking about. Beware! You won't die there, of course; won't even suffer the worst pains that mortals can suffer; won't even be traumatized for the rest of your life. In fact you'll probably not only get out alive but will also quickly resume a decent life. While you're There, however, even if you're an experienced visitor and have escaped before, you may feel that you'll never get out, and you may feel that no pain could be greater. It's no joke then. If some of what we've written here seems like overstatement to you now, then try reading it while you're in the throes. It's a condition that calls for this purple and blue prose. What else is Computer Hell? It's a place for which everyone who buys a DAW volunteers, wittingly or unwittingly. You may be delivered there by a problem with your computer platform, software, misinformation, by an error or oversight in product design or documentation...by any of a number of outside causes. More often than not, however, you'll be delivered there by your most formidable enemy - an enemy that sometimes no dealer, manufacturer, colleague, user group samaritan or friend can enable you to avoid; an enemy which no prior experience with simpler, more "normal" computer software and hardware can help you to combat. That enemy is you - your own ignorance or error. Your journey to this miserable place can begin innocently enough - with the first ad that you see for a product, or with an exciting demo. Throughout your buying process you may remain blissfully unaware of what's ahead. Your sweet oblivion may continue during the installation of your system, then during your first steps along the Learning Curve, and even during the steps that follow after. But sooner or later calamity will strike - perhaps when you think you have this workstation thing licked, maybe when you have a client with you, enjoying your mastery, or when a deadline is looming, or when money or an account stand to be lost. OK, the point has been made. It's time to back off this overdramatizing. Although some users who are in the throes of this pain can fairly say that we're understating (we've certainly seen unpleasant things happen), most DAW users get along happily enough. At worst the experience is survivable, and help can be found when needed. A good dealer will help, surely. Good training will help, too, as will good documentation, and competent technical support by manufacturers, user groups, and your dealer. Especially helpful will be your own common sense and experience. Once DAW users are no longer beginners, they begin to get good both at avoiding difficulties and at finding their ways out of unavoidable ones. Some combination of these resources will usually help you so much and so promptly, in fact, that your difficulties simply won't amount to much. Should this talk of trouble discourage you? No. Even after the worst of experiences, users invariably say that no way would they trade in their new tools for their old ones. Computer Hell? Workstation Hell? We've been there. You'll be there. Sooner or later you'll escape, as everyone does. Those unpleasant places are just the dark side of the usefulness, the value, the ingenuity, the power, the range, and lots of times the plain fun that computer-based tools bring to you and your work. by Mark Parsons to top of page back to learning Copyright 2002, Parsons Audio. We welcome your questions, comments, and contributions >>> Webmeister@paudio.com.

COMPUTER HELL Hazards on the Audio Cyberspace Frontier

COMPUTER HELL
Hazards on the Audio Cyberspace Frontier