Heh, this is funny. As a single guy I tried making simple white rice by the instructions and failed - badly undercooked/dry? I tried a second time with the same directions (in case I messed up the first time) and had the same result. Stubborn I was going to try again when an Asian friend dropped by to pickup something. He sampled my last attempt and laughed at me. He threw an unmeasured amount of rice in the pot, added water to his first pinky crease, and set it to boiled covered. It came out perfect. He asked me why I found that so hard. I blamed the instrustions.
FWIW - Rice cookers work. Except for brown or yellow rice - seems they need to cook longer.