{"id":10630,"date":"2011-12-19T00:00:32","date_gmt":"2011-12-19T07:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.technightowl.com\/?p=10630"},"modified":"2011-12-19T06:40:46","modified_gmt":"2011-12-19T13:40:46","slug":"newsletter-issue-629-how-much-mediocrity-are-you-willing-to-tolerate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.technightowl.live\/blog\/2011\/12\/newsletter-issue-629-how-much-mediocrity-are-you-willing-to-tolerate\/","title":{"rendered":"Newsletter Issue #629: How Much Mediocrity Are You Willing to Tolerate?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Certainly no consumer electronics product is necessarily perfect, but you have to hope you can get these gadgets to perform their basic tasks without having force you to jump through hoops, or navigate difficult-to-configure settings. With a TV set, things aren&#8217;t so bad. Turn it on, and press a button on the remote to change a channel. But please don&#8217;t get me started about doing picture settings and other setup routines.<\/p>\n<p>When it comes to the personal computing world, it took a while before the easier-to-use methods became acceptable. When Apple struggled to spread the word about the Mac in the 1980s, Microsoft was still making boatloads of money licensing DOS to PC makers. Oh, yes, they were also working on their graphical OS, dubbed Windows.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s generally agreed that Windows 95 was perhaps the first reasonably useful version. As Apple&#8217;s executives continued to make foolish decisions that nearly caused the company to collapse, Microsoft made Windows good enough to actually allow you to be reasonably productive with it.<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Wait! There's more than meets the eye!\" href=\"http:\/\/www.technightowl.live\/newsletter\/2011\/12\/newsletter-issue-629\/#it\"><strong>Continue Reading\u2026<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Certainly no consumer electronics product is necessarily perfect, but you have to hope you can get these gadgets to perform their basic tasks without having force you to jump through hoops, or navigate difficult-to-configure settings. With a TV set, things aren&#8217;t so bad. Turn it on, and press a button on the remote to change [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[202,10137,10333,8465,2122,443,1275,8322,8020,9254],"class_list":["post-10630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-apple","tag-apple-inc","tag-computing","tag-dos","tag-mac","tag-microsoft","tag-microsoft-windows","tag-pc","tag-windows","tag-windows-95"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Newsletter Issue #629: How Much Mediocrity Are You Willing to Tolerate? - Gene Steinberg&#039;s Tech Night Owl<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.technightowl.live\/blog\/2011\/12\/newsletter-issue-629-how-much-mediocrity-are-you-willing-to-tolerate\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Newsletter Issue #629: How Much Mediocrity Are You Willing to Tolerate? - Gene Steinberg&#039;s Tech Night Owl\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Certainly no consumer electronics product is necessarily perfect, but you have to hope you can get these gadgets to perform their basic tasks without having force you to jump through hoops, or navigate difficult-to-configure settings. With a TV set, things aren&#8217;t so bad. Turn it on, and press a button on the remote to change [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.technightowl.live\/blog\/2011\/12\/newsletter-issue-629-how-much-mediocrity-are-you-willing-to-tolerate\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Gene Steinberg&#039;s Tech Night Owl\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-12-19T07:00:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-12-19T13:40:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gene Steinberg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@technightowl\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@technightowl\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Gene Steinberg\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.technightowl.live\\\/blog\\\/2011\\\/12\\\/newsletter-issue-629-how-much-mediocrity-are-you-willing-to-tolerate\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.technightowl.live\\\/blog\\\/2011\\\/12\\\/newsletter-issue-629-how-much-mediocrity-are-you-willing-to-tolerate\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Gene Steinberg\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.technightowl.live\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/0fe9df12a34fed15d45e05db1c205e2a\"},\"headline\":\"Newsletter Issue #629: How Much Mediocrity Are You Willing to Tolerate?\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-12-19T07:00:32+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-12-19T13:40:46+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.technightowl.live\\\/blog\\\/2011\\\/12\\\/newsletter-issue-629-how-much-mediocrity-are-you-willing-to-tolerate\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":184,\"commentCount\":0,\"keywords\":[\"Apple\",\"Apple Inc.\",\"computing\",\"DOS\",\"Mac\",\"Microsoft\",\"Microsoft Windows\",\"PC.\",\"Windows\",\"Windows 95\"],\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.technightowl.live\\\/blog\\\/2011\\\/12\\\/newsletter-issue-629-how-much-mediocrity-are-you-willing-to-tolerate\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.technightowl.live\\\/blog\\\/2011\\\/12\\\/newsletter-issue-629-how-much-mediocrity-are-you-willing-to-tolerate\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.technightowl.live\\\/blog\\\/2011\\\/12\\\/newsletter-issue-629-how-much-mediocrity-are-you-willing-to-tolerate\\\/\",\"name\":\"Newsletter Issue #629: How Much Mediocrity Are You Willing to Tolerate? 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