Are Computers Logical?

The hit and miss approach to computers usually results in a miss. We've all done it. You're attempting something simple, something that perhaps has usually worked in the past, and then, for whatever reason, no longer does. Yet we then insist on the same procedure and the computer insists on an error message. BEEP. Hit the same key again and again...well, it's like a fly banging its head against a window pain isn't it? Painful!

So where does the logic breakdown, with ourselves or the computer?

In fact, it is a logistical war, but at the end of the day, the computer is simply a logical mathemathical equation providing a result. But you do have two systems basically, at work: the designed logic and then a particular logic of the user, which may be high level (informed logic) or low level (uninformed logic).

Eye In The Pie

It is because we as users cannot possess all the information (for example the repercussions of a download, or the consequences of a request to default a different set of software) that may bring about unexpected, seemingly illogical results, even if we are applying high level logic to an already sophisticated, fundamentally logical system. Actually, these conflicts may not be logical at all (you could argue the intention to download a lot of bunkum software isn't either), but users cannot be expected to keep track (or know) the extent of every conceivable software conflict.

Anecdotal Evidence

Enter a very specialised piece of equipment, the infrared device, on a USB lead. Conventionally you can download to an IRDA on any notebook computer as these are built in. Most users would probably load up through other mobile tech such as mobile phones, blackberries and the like. It just so happens that Heart Rate monitors can conventiently piggy back on this already set-up system, as POLAR have.

So when I chucked my notebook in order to save on excess baggage, when I left Korea (I was already lugging an oversized flatscreen, and through special intervention was allowed to drag it - like Obelix and the menhir - onto the plane), I bought an infrared device to plug into my desktop. I installed the driver, then went on my merry way. But when I flew to South Africa, the computer itself was dismantled, and shipped to South Africa.

Piecemeal

Once the shipped parts arrived, it turned out that humpty dumpty was lucky. Fortunately, between the crumbs of ex-viable computer parts, the hard drives were still intact. But once the newly built machine saw the light of day, the infrared device did not work; it did not read the heart rate monitors urgent, but silent, infra red beam. Why? Because without the original memoryboard, you lose all that 'floating' information, including programs, instals, operating systems and the like. And my device didn't work because it was lost in the plethora of 'floating' information that got washed away by the equiavelent of a tornado.

The device needs a driver

Imagine a small little man that looks like Elmer Fudd, sitting at the door to your computer, and all he does all day is press a switch beside a big INCOMING sign. The name on the switch is: Accept/Deny.

DENY DENY DENY

Well for the passed - what is it - two weeks my Elmer has been denying me the use of my infrared device. Because just like when I had a newly pieced together computer after returning from Korea, my recent foray into upgrading (aka the ability to use your computer more effectively, and in particular utiliting technologies faster speeds...)had the unexpected, and highly counterintuitive result of disallowing any infrared downloading. Yes, this 2 week delay flies in the face of the idea that upgrading your computer is going to make your life that bit easier, at least over the short term. It's frustrating.

As Easy as PII

You'd think downloading an infrared device driver on google would be easy. Actually, it is easy, it's just that selecting the right one is not. Sure you can select drivers to download but they just won't work, or you'll get funny small boxes that mess up your display. In this respect, computers for all their logic, become damn complicated.

In the end, on my own, I managed to source a driver, one that allowed me to download through my IRDA device, but woe betide me when I got home, it did not work on my home computer. How logical is that?

In the end the person who went with me to Yongsan Electronic's Market in Seoul - one of the world's biggest - to buy the original InfraRed Device (since I was selling him my notebook) sourced an appropriate driver within a day on the net. It worked first time.

Computers are logical, and sometimes people are, but never the twain shall meet. Perhaps that's a good thing in the scheme of things. Right now, I'm not convinced. There's a test for your logic stream.