Steve Jobs goal was to make the computer as easy to use as any other appliance, like a fridge or toaster.
I guess they still have a ways to go.
Good laugh right here
https://youtu.be/J-p9JkH4RY8
ask young people to peel potatoes or change the oil in a car...or how to make cookies from scratch or how to play pinochle or rook, etc.
One of my work study jobs when I returned to school after working in a lumber mill for 8 years three decades ago was computer lab assistent. I had been a computer enthusiast for many years, so I quickly was given many more responsiblilities. But my job was basically to help other students with their home work, maintain the computers, and terminals, and fill in when a professor was late or absent.
Helping students even when you are looking over their shoulders and telling them exactly what to do was more challenging than what you might expect. But it was nothing compared to trying to help my parents who are well into their 80s with computer issues.
The thing that amazes me these days are how even young people typically have no clue about using directories or “folders” (as they are now called) and how to organize or even navigate through them. Since people are so dense about this most programs these days try to do it all for you automatically, many will not even let you organize your files in ways that are more efficient for you.
Most elderly people have no business with computers. I am exasperated with my elderly parents and their non-stop "computer problems." Everything's a major catastrophe with them and I get panic calls all the time. "My screen is frozen, what do I do?", "I can't open my email!", "My Internet is not working", "I can't remember my password!"
ping and funny stories!
WebTV was fun. I bought one in August 1996 and was on the internet for two days straight. I could not believe what was out there. Yahoo was a very ugly and primitive site back then with a deathly grey background. After a few months I bought a Compaq computer I thought was extra cool because it had a 100mb zip-drive slot in the front.
Two years later I bought one assembled for me with a 10 gigabyte IBM hard drive which was top of the line. After that I built my own, mostly with NewEgg components.
I once drove 40 miles to check the printer that wasn’t working. The office staff said it was indeed plugged in. It was plugged into a power strip that the maid had unplugged to run the vacuum cleaner.
I’m in my seventies and know more about computers & OS than my kids and grandkids. Of course was in IT all thru 80’s, 90’s and early 2k, taught programming all thru 80’s. Hate Windows with a passion and use Linux, use SSD’s instead of hard drives. My kids still ask me for help LOL.
So much to say to so many posts. I am reminded of a story, attributed to Ronaldus Magnus about the gang of “yutes who were giving the business to an old codger hobbling down the street with a cane.
“Hey Old Man, don’t you wish you knew how to use a cell phone so you could call a cab ?”
To which the Old Man replied...
“Hey punk, who do you think invented all this crap ? And made millions doing it.”
Having used a 300 baud modem I remember a story about a Professor who complained to tech support that his screen was flying by too fast to read. Turns out the school had upgraded everybody to 1200 baud. The same thing happened to me when I bought a US Robotics 1200 baud but at least I knew why it was doing what it was doing.
By virtue of being President of a local art association with a lot of seniors as members I frequently get calls because of computer problems. I mostly troubleshoot over the phone by having a mental map of what they should be seeing on their display and asking questions based on educated guesses.
What should be a short session of a few minutes with somebody that is at least a little computer literate frequently turns into much longer sessions due to the lack of a common reference frame. For example, one cannot just tell somebody to turn the computer off because the person on the other end of the call thinks the monitor is the computer and by turning it off and seeing the little red light go out the whole system is shut down.
The payoff is hearing the shock when the recalcitrant machine starts working again followed by the gratitude of the user to me for fixing things.
It is more than a little frustrating to suggest playing with the machine so as to learn the basics only to get repeat calls for the same thing, knowing that the person on the other end really didn’t try to figure it out on their own, although some do try to one degree or another.
To error is human, to screw things really badly it takes a computer !
Bud I need moi comptutor as I get hear ta zis plase to speek to youse FRS! Yeah fer tipewrightors!
I am that stupid when it comes to Phones and Apps
Computers, I have no Problems ... a 6 year old found and started playing all kinda Games on my Phone ... I had no clue
For weeks I was just trying to undo everything she accomplished and to get my phone back to normal ... lucky me there is an 8 year old across the street and 30 seconds later I’m good.
Why don’t I understand Phones? It should be easy, small children know it, why can’t I?
I loved this thread tonight...
After all of the political tension and being close to a nervous breakdown over the riots, etc, this was just plain
FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Polly... who is a 79 year old senior and fairly computer literate!!