Since I had ordered my Dell over the phone, I tried to seek technical support the same way. The Dell answering menu kept directing me to seek help online. After nearly an hour, I finally contacted a human, but there was an infuriating language barrier. It sounded as if the customer representative was repeatedly asking if I’d pressed the “cat slap button.” Then I realized she was referring to the “caps lock” button. I asked where she was. “In the Philippines,” she replied.  -- Sending an S O S for a PC Exorcist

Ah, you have to love outsourced technical support.  But the main point of the article isn’t support via the Philippines, it’s about PC/Windows support in general.

You know me, I go with what John C. Dvorak says in the article:

“I advise everybody to buy a Macintosh because Apple products are the easiest to use,” he said. “If you own a PC, you have to find a local nerd, a kid, maybe a relative. Every family has one unless they’ve just moved here from a foreign country. That’s the only solution.”

Unfortunately, I happen to be that one Dvorak speaks of.  So please, please, please, if you are buying new computer, please buy a Mac.  It will make your (Internet) life easier.