Missing the Missing Manual
Did you ever notice how many books there are in the computer section of a bookstore that say "The Missing Manual." Why is that? Why are so many important software programs sold to us with not a shred of printed material or even a CD manual? A book to help us out when we've totally bollixed our computer? Isn't it odd that computer geeks don't think we need that? (And I say geek with great affection.)
At some point in the development of the home computer the idea of giving the customer a 1,000-page "Guide to Your Operating System" was considered too outré, too plain vanilla.
"Why this is a paperless society now," the developers decided. "If they need help, it's all online." Unless, of course, your problem is getting online. Smart thinking there, Einstein.
I suffered through many indignities at computer stores pleading with the guys behind the counter to explain why my word processing software would only print z's in Papyrus font. Then I got smart and bought a Macintosh. Fewer screw-ups, and far less of a need to go to the Apple Store and ask what in mercy's sake I had done to my "keychain." (PC people: best to not ask.) But the Mac came with no manual either.
So I started collecting whatever I saw on sale. The Portable Genius books. Books on Leopard, Snow Leopard. And soon, I'll be looking for books on the Lion operating system. All with pictures to show dweebs like me where we went wrong—pictures of the computer screen as it should look with the cursor in the appropriate place. Stuff for the developmentally uncoordinated.
One time I bought a box of software from the Apple Store and when I got it home, I found it consisted of three discs. I inserted them one by one and installed the program. Then I waited for it to tell me what to do. Nothing happened. I looked all over the printed material on the box for some kind of clue as to what I was supposed to do to get the thing running. There was nothing but paragraphs about letting my creativity run free. (It was a creative writing program.) Finally I trudged back to the Apple Store with the program and the receipt, sure that something had been left out of my package. Instructions fell out, surely.
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