About Computer Gripes

The lone griper (and webmaster) behind ComputerGripes.com is Michael Horowitz. As the dates on the home page show, there haven't been udpates to this site in over a year. Since I started blogging at CNET, there just hasn't been time to maintain this site.

The site is devoted to what stinks about computer products (hardware, software, web sites); to the problems I've experienced in using them. I love computers, which is why the errors, bugs, poor documentation, confusing interfaces and occasional stupidity in the field annoys me no end.

Duck with serious computer gripes These are my gripes, this site is not for posting your gripes. To air your gripes, take a look at this page.

These gripes are not product reviews. They do not provide information about what a product is or does, it's features or what's good about it. Instead, I focus on problems and annoyances, the things I suffered through in trying to use the product. Sure, sometimes I have nice things to say, but not here, that's not the purpose of this web site.

My intention is not to judge whether a product is good or bad, just to document the grief in using it. I use many of the products griped about here on a continuing basis and recommend some of them to others. Nothing and no one is perfect. Don't assume that because I have gripes about something that you should not use it. Treat the gripes as a heads up about problems you might expect should you use the product.

Call me a curmudgeon, (it wouldn't be the first time) but the details of problems can be more valuable than a product review. Anyone can describe what a product is or does and what's good about it. The trade press does this, the vendors/manufacturers do it, etc. I'm here to fill in the gap, to document exclusively what's bad, broken or annoying about a computer product.

C u r m u d g e o n The gripes here are almost exclusively facts, not opinions (sometimes I get carried away). I am not an angry consumer venting frustration. For angry consumers see web sites such as NorthWorstAir.org, IHateStarbucks.com or WeHatePacificBell.com. or Paypalsucks.com. That is not what I'm doing on this site. I try to carefully document the gripes (dates, version numbers, error messages, etc.) so you can tell whether they might apply in your environment. If there was a theme to this site (I'm not sure there is) it would be one of disappointment. Also, this site is in no way associated with americagripes.com.

Most of the gripes represent my personal first-hand experiences with the product. When others have written about problems with a product that I cover, the page will have an "Other Gripers" section. A (very) few gripe topics on this site are solely indexes of articles written by others because I have no first-hand experience with the product.

The green section on the home page called Griping In The News is not the main focus of this site. Often there are gripe-like stories in the media on subjects and topics I don't cover and this section highlights these stories. When I run across many stories in the news on a particular subject, I'll group them together into a gripe page.

In August 2004, I started an RSS feed for the web site. It's only updated when I add a new gripe topic. There is though, an associated style sheet for the feed which makes it viewable as a web page in a web browser.

This web site is a hobby, not a commercial enterprise. It was initially intended only to be useful to me (think vanity publishing). I started this site in 1999 simply to learn about the technology behind web sites. Since its a hobby, the updating of the RSS feed and the Most Popular Gripes section on the home page is haphazard. So too, when I upgrade the site appearance, it's too often a manual procedure and the very old pages don't get updated. On any given web page, the latest information is sometimes at the top, sometimes in the middle and sometimes at the bottom. I do however, indicate the latest updates both by dating them and with a icon.

I am the sole person behind and responsible for this web site. My personal web site has more about me.

Finally, this web site is rated G, there are no curse words, despite the frequent temptation.

Publicity

Computer Gripes was the July 10, 2000 hotspot on Browsertune.
Computer Gripes got a mention on the WebWord web site, specifically in the usability weblog of January 15, 2001 thru January 22, 2001. I was also interviewed by John Rhodes of WebWord in February 2001.
You can rate Computer Gripes at Electric Moon
The ZoneAlarm gripes were mentioned in Scot Finnie's newsletter on May 15, 2001
Computer Gripes was the Cool Pick Site of the Day on May 16, 2001
This site was mentioned in Volume 3 Issue 7 of the skeevis.com newsletter (date unknown)
I got mentioned in David Strom's newsletter, the Web Informant on October 10, 2001. He wrote about, what was then, the new Norton Anti-Virus 2002. I emailed him some gripes which he added to the online version of the newsletter.
I got a special thank you from Scot Finnie in his newsletter on October 17, 2001
Netsurfer Digest wrote about this site on December 6, 2001. Read what they said and my opinion of it.
This site got a well thought out review in the December 12, 2001 issue of the GnomeREPORT, part of the LockerGnome web site and newsletter. The GnomeREPORT is also called Tech Specialist.
The St. Petersburg Times (of Florida) mentioned this site in the Site Seeing column by Jules Allen on January 14, 2002
This site was a hot link in the New Zealand Herald on January 15, 2002
This site was mentioned in the Brisbane News magazine, a lifestyle glossy in Australia. The author of that article also mentioned the site in her newsletter. February 6, 2002
Michael Solinas, (a.k.a. the Web Wanderer) reviewed this site on the Bob O'Donnell show on KSFO radio in San Francisco on May 4, 2002.
This site got mentioned in an article on PC Security in the Australian edition of PC World magazine. The online article is undated. It says "A range of users reviews can be found at www.computergripes.com". This is not true, they are all my writings and the gripes are not even reviews.
This site was mentioned in the Internet Tourbus newsletter February 11, 2004
I have gotten a small bit of publicity on my own, not regarding this web site.
In February 2004, this site was named a Computing Coolsite by Emerald. As of March 2004, their review is archived on the Computing Coolsites page. The software section has a direct link to the review.
This site was mentioned in the April 15, 2004 edition of the Neat Net Tricks newsletter.
The Firefox gripes were mentioned in Can Your Site Survive Firefox? by Brian Livingston in Datamation July 19, 2004
The Firefox gripes were also cited by Fred Langa in his newsletter, the Langa List on July 22, 2004
This site was mentioned in Ten things I hate about tech By Nicole Manktelow in the Sydney Morning Herald August 21, 2004

Average Page Views Per Day For The Site

Month	Average Daily Page Views
(1) September 2000	160
October 2000	188
November 2000	345
December 2000	420
January 2001	485
February 2001	730
March 2001	565
April 2001	618
May 2001	742
June 2001	771
July 2001	856
August 2001	1,000
September 2001	912
October 2001	1,118
November 2001	1,013
December 2001	1,661
January 2002	1,520
February 2002	1,378
March 2002	1,426
April 2002	1,362
(2) May 2002	1,422
June 2002	1,387
July 2002	1,542
(2) August 2002	1,629
September 2002	1,696
October 2002	1,646
November 2002	1,825
January 2003	2,191
February 2003	2,193
March 2003	1,926
April 2003	1,984
May 2003	1,985
June 2003	1,874
July 2003	1,798
August 2003	1,928
September 2003	1,937
October 2003	1,993
November 2003	2,027
December 2003	1,985
January 2004	2,460
February 22-28 2004	2,857
March 2004	3,349
April 2004	2,810
May 2004	3,103
June 2004	3,664
(4) July 2004	5,832
August 2004	4,707
September 2004	4,753
October 2004	4,400
November 2004	4,208
December 2004	3,998
January 2005	4,803
February 2005	4,517
March 2005	4,873
April 2005	5,118
May 2005	4,768
June 2005	4,530
July 2005	4,111
August 2005	4,538
September 2005	4,986
October 2005	5,480
November 2005	6,004
December 2005	5,916
January 2006	6,802
February 2006	5,937
March 2006	5,441
April 2006	5,011
May 2006	5,417
June 2006	5,405
August 2006	6,625
September 2006	6,010
October 2006	6,300
November 2006	5,938
December 2006	5,534
January 2007	6,405
February 2007	5,680
March 2007	5,174
April 2007	4,968
May 2007	4,317
July 2007	4,937
August 2007	4,338
September 2007	4,081
October 2007	4,120
November 2007	4,325
December 2007	5,236
January 2008	5,012
February 2008	4,923
March 2008	3,839
April 2008	3,681
May 2008	4,552
June 2008	5,189
July 2008	?
August 2008	2,990
September 2008	3,474
(1) Also includes first 12 days of October (2) Missing 6 days in middle of month (3) Includes the first week of December 2002 (4) Only the last 13 days of the month

Individual Page Stats

Individual page stats are available from a PHP based page counter that I wrote. Due to a site move, it is currently down (I've got to get all the Linux permissions set up).

Page created:	Page last updated: October 6, 2008 7 PM
Prior updates: once a month