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Alright, so I just got back from my first trip to Fry’s Electronics. I have decided that it is time for me to share some of what it really means to be a power user with computers and technology in general. I have received many of those “How do you know…”type questions recently, and it has become apparent to me that I need to start writing down observations and guidelines – not an instruction manual, mind you – that at least give some insight into what goes on in a power user’s head in certain situations. Look for this to be a repeat entry here in the near future. Alright, enough BS. Let’s go.
POWER USER OBSERVATION #1
When a power user sees “Do not attempt to install this (generic computer peripheral) before installing the accompanying software” written in an instruction book, the first thing he does is begin to plan how to install the hardware without installing the accompanying software first. This will not surprise many, but the actual reason probably will:
Power users are not reluctant to read instruction manuals when the information can be of help. One of the best sources of information given by instruction manuals is an imperative to do something that is not necessary. The driver pre-installation issue is 99.9% one of these types of situations. Driver pre-installs are requested to install spyware and unnecessary support applications. When a manual says to pre-install drivers, you plug in the device and search for the driver yourself, thus (except in the case of HP printers) avoiding needless support applications.
This attitude is not one of hard-headedness, but one of self and computer-defense.
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To embellish this point a bit, I bought a really cool pocket-sized D-Link wireless USB adapter today that did exactly what I described above. It would have installed a driver/monitor application that runs in the background had a not just plugged it in and clicked “Have Disk…” on the driver screen. Awesome.