It's in the computer (10/12/2021) 

Many years ago, I would get a catalog in the mail from software company Borland. I believe they sent it every 3 months.

I wasn’t a regular customer but just a browser really. It was in the early days of PC’s and I was interested in seeing what was on the market. I did order something from them once, it was C++ for DOS that came on 25 3,5-inch floppies.

After that they sent me two catalogs which was a waste. They were nice little booklets which must have cost quite a bit to produce and distribute. And since I don’t like wastefulness and throw one in the garbage right away, I tried to alert Borland.

We were some years away from Internet and email, so I just called them, on my landline phone. The lady was very friendly but told me that she couldn’t help me. “I’m sorry sir but it is the computer, I can’t change it”

Really? You are a computer company, you produce software and of all people you should know that if you put information in a computer you can also change that information and delete it as well if need to be. You probably use you own database program to run your client and mailing system.

Or may you just don’t want to be bothered to look it up and think I’m so computer illiterate that I just believe what you tell me. I actually didn’t say that to her, I just shrugged it off.

Of course, an excuse like that doesn’t work now, and it hasn’t for years. Back then having a computer was a luxury and you were in high regards if you knew how to operate one. Now we have a generation of people who doesn’t know what it is like not to have a computer and Internet.  

If I tell this story to my 9-year-old grandson he would probably say something like: “Well, that was pretty stupid of her”