User unfriendly
Subtitle: consumer struggles with personal technologies, from clocks and sewing machines to cars and computers
By: Joseph J. Corn
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Published: 2011
Place of publication: Baltimore
Language: eng
Number of pages: 272
ISBN-13: 9781421401928
Subjects: Social aspects; Technological innovations; Human-machine systems; Human-computer interaction
Description: "Joseph J. Corn maps two centuries of consumer frustration and struggle with personal technologies. ... Having extensively researched owner's manuals, computer user-group newsletters, and how-to literature, Corn brings a fresh, consumer-oriented approach to the history of technology."--Dust jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Our marvelous and maddening machines; title: The advent of technology consumption; title: "Like breaking out of jail" : buying and shopping for an automobile; title: "Where the salesman leaves you" : learning to operate an automobile; title: Under-the-hood : tools, tinkering, and trouble; title: "Silent instructors": learning by reading; title: Computers  : the tyranny of technology consumption; title: "Technology treadmill"; title: Acknowledgements; title: Abbreviations in citations.