While I was writing that last post about perception, I ran across this article about the widely-believed myths of PC power supplies. I, of course, as a Computer Professional, subscribe to none of these falsehoods. Unfortunately, that smug superiority prevents me from understanding why people who don’t have the time or interest to gain an intimate understanding of their laptops might think these notions are perfectly reasonable.

As I’ve said before, the future of the technology industry will combine social science with computer science. Otherwise, all we’ll have are people writing in computer journals, which average people do not read, what average people should know about their computers. Here’s a thought: during shutdown, the farewell screen might tell you that there’s no problem powering up and down on a regular basis.

I bet there are still people who think that computers can explode with pyrotechnical flourish, in the way that they did in every other episode of Star Trek or Lost In Space. Or, that you can talk a misbehaving computer into destroying itself, in the way that Kirk does around 44:00 in this episode. (And, seriously, in what incarnation of Star Trek, including the new movie, will the Federation ever get around to equipping their starships with seatbelts?)