Response of the Week: Plug and Play PC is a myth
"I couldn't agree more with John's mail concerning the "minefield". To mention but one peripheral - the joystick - I personally have five at present, and they all seem to work fine with different games, but not one of them works with all.
"As an illustration of the CKM (Computer Knowledge Minefield), I recently helped choose the neighbouring children's systems for them. When the systems arrived the parents thought one could just plug in and go. I tried to explain that these are not Playstations or Nintendo systems. It's okay for me, I'm an anorak and have been messing about with PCs for years, but neither of the systems' drivers or peripherals were set up correctly: American keyboard, modems were set up at incorrect baud rates, graphic card drivers weren't installed...
"I feel that to be interested in computers it really does have to be your job or hobby to be able to tweak your system for maximum performance. Plug and play... not yet I think."
E-mail me with your comments on any PC issue on your mind to win the rodent next week.