A new report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project indicates that many of us are technological gimps when it comes to using all the gadgets we are buying.

Seen another way the survey also indicates that the growing complexity of the technologies — and the way they interface with each other — are overwhelming consumers and companies. The survey sends a warning to companies looking to cut costs during the global economic meltdown: follow up customer service will remain a main selling point for consumers, along with good design.

The Project's survey of US consumers showed that 48 percent of technology users usually need the help of others to set up new devices or to understand how they function. Over the 12 months since they got them, 44 percent had a failure happen to heir home Internet connection; 39 percent had a problem with their computers; and 29 percent said their cell phone failed to work properly. Of these, 38 percent contacted user support for help and another 28 percent fixed the problem themselves.

But the shocking figure is that 15 percent just gave up on fixing their devices. Of these frustrated people, it turns out that one in four of cell phone users and one in five computer users threw in the towel. I don't know what they did with the devices.

Perhaps there should have been a follow-up question. Did they throw them away? Stash them in a box? It's difficult to understand all the forces acting on the bunch that gives up. I certainly waste a lot of time fixing problems with gadgets, but then I do not have a lot of money to throw them away and buy new ones.

I demand that they work as stated on the package and we must hold suppliers of gadgets and services accountable when they do not do so. The 15 percent who give up are donating a freebie to the suppliers.

What a week it has been, with spam volumes diminishing, a woman admitting she had been defrauded of $400,000 through the well-known Nigerian e-mail scam, the idiot Jerry Yang finally departing from Yahoo after he almost sunk the ship, and Microsoft giving away free robotics software.

First the spam issue. Last week I noticed a significant drop in spam coming into my many e-mail boxes. I looked around for news and behold, the reason was that a major source of spam was barred from the Internet. The company, McColo Corporation in San Jose, was a hosting service for companies that sent out e-mails advertising counterfeit designer goods, pharmaceuticals, fake Internet security products and child pornography.

Once identified, two Internet providers cut off the company and spam levels declined by up to 40 e-mails per second. Still, even with that outage, the levels seem to have mounted again.

If you think people are not being scammed through e-mail, or if you believe that you are immune then you should study the story of Janella Spears, a nurse in Oregon, who fell for the Nigerian e-mail scam and lost $400,000 in savings. Of course the story involves greed and stubbornness. She admits rejecting many times the advice of the FBI, and others to stop sending money. She says that once she started sending money she became obsessed with sending more. Each time the scamsters told her the payday was just around the corner, if only she would send some more.

The pitch started with an e-mail claiming she was entitled to $20 million left behind by her grandfather who she had lost contact with.

She started by sending $100 through an untraceable wire service (a usual request), and escalated to sending $8,300 at a time. Give her credit, however. She has now come out of the nightmare, poorer, but able to tell her story to the world — a warning to those who will listen.

Another stubborn person who lost a lot of investors money is Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang, who turned down a $47.5 billion offer from Microsoft, claiming to other investors that he knew how to make the company competitive.

Yahoo's stock has now sunk to one-third of the offer value, a deal with Google has collapsed, and Microsoft has turned to other proposals. This week Yang finally quit under pressure from shareholders. His stubbornness is certainly a lesson in why not everyone who has a brilliant idea and ability is always qualified to take a company through troubled times.

Want to fool around with robot-ready software?

Microsoft had released Robotics Developer Studio 2008, which has a free version so young programmers can experiment with the software. You have to go to http://msdn.microsoft.com to download the Express Edition at no cost. The company has also supplied the documentation, samples and tutorials to help you write the applications. There are a number of competitions you can enter on the site as well once you get past the "Hello Bermy" stage.

Finally, don't forget to attend the Senior Schools' Third Annual Computer & Technology Quiz Competition. Hosted by the Pembroke Hamilton Rotary at CedarBridge Academy 6:30 p.m. on November 24, the event is free.

If you have any comments send them to elamin.ahmed@gmail.com.