My friend Tim was late to personal computers. In recent years, his WebTV unit handled all his email and Web surfing. However, he didn’t get full-blown a PC right away. He dreaded the task of having to set up what he presumed to be a complicated piece of electronics gear, but finally he decided to take the plunge.

So he went on over to a discount store, and bought a cheap portable. The brand doesn’t matter, as most Windows note-books contain similar parts from the same parts bin. Well, to be fair, the internal workings of a MacBook or MacBook Pro share many of those same parts, and are built in the same Asian manufacturing facilities. But that’s where the resemblance ends.

I suppose Tim managed things pretty well, although he continued to rely on WebTV for a lot of his online chores. However, when it came to downloading videos and listening to Internet radio, he returned to his note-book.

Then one of his assistants — who served as a sort of IT person for his small company — told him that his computer was running unusually slow, something he observed himself, but chalked it up to his lack of understanding of how those contraptions functioned.

Story continued in this week’s Tech Night Owl Newsletter.

This article was posted on Monday, March 5th, 2007 at 1:58 AM and is filed under News and tagged with: Chores, Contraptions, Email, Internet Radio, Macbook, Newsletter, Night Owl, Notebook, Notebooks, Owl, Personal Computers, Plunge, Resemblance, Seven Hours, Web Surfing, Windows User.