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Why are people in their 40s-60s so bad at tech anyway? The Commodore 64 was commonplace when they were in their late 20s at the oldest and poo poo's only gotten easier from there. They've used computers more complicated than modern stuff for huge proportions of their working lives.
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May 1, 2020 18:49
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It's a stereotype that doesn't hold up. Young people are just as bad with technology. It turns out that not caring about how a thing works and not applying critical thought are universal traits and totally unrelated to age.
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May 1, 2020 18:55
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The same way that there are people from all age groups that are bad at technology.
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May 1, 2020 18:55
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shovelbum posted:Why are people in their 40s-60s so bad at tech anyway? The Commodore 64 was commonplace when they were in their late 20s at the oldest and poo poo's only gotten easier from there. There's no [citation needed] big enough.
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May 1, 2020 18:56
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shovelbum posted:Why are people in their 40s-60s so bad at tech anyway? The Commodore 64 was commonplace when they were in their late 20s at the oldest and poo poo's only gotten easier from there. They've used computers more complicated than modern stuff for huge proportions of their working lives. Computers weren't commonplace though. Some people had them or maybe used them at work, but until the 90s a majority of adults had barely used one, had no interest in them, and could get along perfectly well without knowing anything about them. I think there's a fairly small window where people now aged 30-45 spent their formative years around computers in the 80s and early 90s and developed a particular mindset about how they work and how to use them, and that mindset is just completely unfathomable to anyone older. Try explaining to a 60 year old what a "file" is, or watch them poo poo themselves because an icon moved on the desktop and they don't know how to do anything except by rote memorisation of "click the third button, then type this, then click on that..." Sweevo has a new favorite as of 14:26 on Feb 12, 2023 |
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May 1, 2020 19:08
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My issue with Win10 above what has been brought up before (terrible control panels and the fact it's now essentially a free app full of IAP and crapware) is that there's always just *something* that doesn't work the way it's supposed to. Yesterday my OneDrive completely shat the bed for no reason. Today I needed to use the Version History function for the first time, but every single file I try it on brings up "Something happened! We're not able to complete action right now. Try again later." (Yeah that's word for word, it reads like an Ali Express manual). It still feels like years and years of crap on top of existing crap that doesn't work properly.
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May 1, 2020 19:12
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Sweevo posted:I think there's a fairly small window where people now aged 30-45 spent their formative years around computers in the 80s and early 90s and developed a particular mindset about how they work and how to use them, that's just completely unfathomable to anyone older. Try explaining to a 60 year old what a "file" is, or watch them poo poo themselves because an icon moved on the desktop and they don't know how to do anything except by rote memorisation of "click the third button, then type this, then click on that..." Yeah there is a really, really huge difference between people who've developed a mental model of how computer systems work and those that just follow instructions. The latter act like it's sorcery when the former can figure out how to do something in a program they haven't used before. It's not a rigid generational thing but a "how much do I care about learning" thing and it shows up in every profession and complex system. Tiny Timbs has a new favorite as of 19:42 on May 1, 2020 |
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May 1, 2020 19:39
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I'm more baffled by people like my mid/late-20's coworker who just finished a science degree and is now a grad student and still can't figure out even the simplest functions and features in Excel
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May 1, 2020 20:21
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Powered Descent posted:There's a lot to like about MacOS but there's also a lot that makes me want to hurl it off a bridge. The biggest one is the utterly ridiculous mouse acceleration curve. It feels like stirring mud. I finally had to buy a commercial program (SteerMouse) just to turn the drat acceleration off entirely, and make it so that moving the mouse a certain distance always moves the pointer a certain distance, regardless of how fast you do it. (Ditto for the scroll wheel.) Having it try to interpret how far I "really" wanted the cursor to go was absolutely maddening, to the point that I was seriously considering the hassle of installing Linux on a Macbook just to escape it. Glad I am not the only one... I do have a Macbook, but I absolutely cannot stand to use a mouse on it... so I just don't. I find whatever curve MasOS uses for the trackpad however is perfect, I find it easier to use the trackpad actually. Back when I dabbled with Hackintoshing, SteerMouse was always the first thing that got installed. I am just far too used to whatever the default curve is in Windows.
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May 1, 2020 20:50
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I used to dazzle students born after the Lewinsky scandal in the writing center by using Ctrl-X and Ctrl-V to copy and paste in their Word documents.
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May 1, 2020 20:52
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Mak0rz posted:I'm more baffled by people like my mid/late-20's coworker who just finished a science degree and is now a grad student and still can't figure out even the simplest functions and features in Excel I wonder if Microsoft will ever get rid of the incredibly stupid "Personal.xlsb is locked for editing" bug.
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May 1, 2020 20:59
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3D Megadoodoo posted:I wonder if Microsoft will ever get rid of the incredibly stupid "Personal.xlsb is locked for editing" bug. I don't even know what that is but the person I'm talking about can't even construct columns properly or use simple arithmetic functions so I don't know if it is something they even should worry about at this point
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May 1, 2020 21:45
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Windows 10 is pretty decent - they've ironed out a lot of the worst stuff now, although the obnoxious setting/control panel dichotomy is incredibly bad and dumb. It also manages to be dumb about printing a lot of the time. Recent versions of Mac OS X have been okay but I would rather use Windows than Mac for just about any purpose. The best desktop is KDE Plasma 5. Neither Windows nor Mac come close in terms of usability, customizability, and general design.
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May 1, 2020 21:48
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wake me up when Windows (or KDE... lmao) has something as useful as Mission Control and actual multi touch gestures that you might want to use on a touch pad.
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May 1, 2020 21:53
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3D Megadoodoo posted:I wonder if Microsoft will ever get rid of the incredibly stupid "Personal.xlsb is locked for editing" bug. It'll be done right after they add the ability to unhide multiple tabs in one go in Excel.
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May 1, 2020 21:59
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Star Man posted:I used to dazzle students born after the Lewinsky scandal in the writing center by using Ctrl-X and Ctrl-V to copy and paste in their Word documents. I couldn't believe Jerry was explain those in this video and had to watch, even if he is super cringey: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuRx9fzzmHM
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May 2, 2020 02:25
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Imagine paying so much money for one of Apple's extremely underpowered devices. But hell, people only buy the poo poo Apple excretes out so they can show off the logo.
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May 2, 2020 09:12
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Printers have never been good, have only gotten worse over time, and no OS has ever been good at them. As for Win10, the phone home stuff and bloatware are obnoxious but on an SSB boot times are absolutely sublime, and I can't stand the half-assed right-click implimentation of MacOS for even a single second. As for multitouch, I guess if you're a freak who loves giving yourself carpel tunnel on touchpads, but I use a mouse.
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May 2, 2020 10:06
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DoctorWhat posted:Printers have never been good, have only gotten worse over time, and no OS has ever been good at them. Uhh printers were good. They were also 100% OS-independent which is WHY they were good.
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May 2, 2020 11:13
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HP is a joke now but they made great laser printers
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May 2, 2020 11:23
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DoctorWhat posted:Printers have never been good, have only gotten worse over time, and no OS has ever been good at them. ??? MacOS has a perfectly fine right click. Are you still using a one button mouse? CTLR click is the legacy of that. Apple has the best touch pads that decent to use but if I have a mouse I am using the mouse. Printers suck because of the intentionally bad economics of printers.
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May 2, 2020 11:30
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I've used a big honking Laserjet on my 1987 286 and, conversely, my old Facit dot matrix from 1987 with my Windows 98SE box because hey ASCII is ASCII. But my late 90s Canon LBP-something won't work with anything past 98SE because they wanted people to buy new printers every version of Windows and didn't write new drivers. It works just fine otherwise which is why I still have a Windows 95 laptop always at the ready if I have to print something at home.
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May 2, 2020 11:34
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I've got a Laserjet 4+ next to my desk. Made in 1993, but it's only done ~70,000 pages so it'll still be printing in 2050. Toners are £2 each at a local office clearance shop, and it uses a generic PCL driver that's been built into every version of Windows since 3.1
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May 2, 2020 12:14
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Oh my god are we role playing 2003 or something
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May 2, 2020 12:16
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Data Graham posted:Oh my god are we role playing 2003 or something OH NO SOMEONE STILL USES HARDWARE THAT WORKS INSTEAD OF BUYING NEWER HARDWARE THAT DOESNT WORK OMG WTF I CAN'T EVEN?!?!?!?!!!111223ELVATOLVAKATINKORVA
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May 2, 2020 12:36
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Sorry let me clarify, I’m talking about the mac/Windows argument which apparently has not changed even its vocabulary in 20 years
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May 2, 2020 12:47
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I'm waiting for someone to come in and type Microsoft with a $ any minute now
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May 2, 2020 13:08
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Data Graham posted:Sorry let me clarify, I’m talking about the mac/Windows argument which apparently has not changed even its vocabulary in 20 years Oh I skipped all those posts.
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May 2, 2020 13:09
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barbecue at the folks posted:I'm waiting for someone to come in and type Microsoft with a $ any minute now Microshaft Winblows Man I worked for Microsoft in the 90s and opinion about the company took a hard turn in 1995 - 96
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May 2, 2020 13:27
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Humphreys posted:I couldn't believe Jerry was explain those in this video and had to watch, even if he is super cringey: The first few times I had a student that didn't know any Windows or Mac shortcuts for copy and paste, I was pretty stupified by it. Either way, I just explained the shortcuts, showed them how to find out what they are, and explained that they were from a time when desktop computers had no mice. My educated guess is that a lot of zoomers and the youngest millennials don't know those shortcuts because their computer usage has shifted to smartphones and tablets.
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May 2, 2020 13:39
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barbecue at the folks posted:I'm waiting for someone to come in and type Microsoft with a $ any minute now Isn’t Windows supposed to go free at some point but they push you towards a premium O365 subscription?
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May 2, 2020 13:57
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Star Man posted:The first few times I had a student that didn't know any Windows or Mac shortcuts for copy and paste, I was pretty stupified by it. Either way, I just explained the shortcuts, showed them how to find out what they are, and explained that they were from a time when desktop computers had no mice. I am not sure but that might have partially explained this comment. oohhboy posted:If you are using a desktop browser use Command/Control V to paste the link. It will auto parse and embed the Youtube link. If you use right click paste it doesn't. The forums also detects URLs so if it doesn't get embed it treats it like any other link. Dip Viscous posted:Just tested this and can confirm, but LOL what the hell.
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May 2, 2020 13:58
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My first PC had the control key above left shift. 
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May 2, 2020 14:13
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Dip Viscous posted:My first PC had the control key above left shift. 
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May 2, 2020 14:14
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Can anyone give me a good reason the scroll lock button still exists, lol.
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May 2, 2020 14:27
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I agree that the win 10 control/settings panel sucks. The key is to just hit start and type what you want. Like the first thing I do on a new win 10 install is enable night light. I could never tell you where night light is hidden menu-wise, I just hit start, type night light, pres butan, done.
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May 2, 2020 14:31
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I noticed that the latest W10 update shuffled the settings another step away from Control Panel and among other things made the mouse cursor freely scalable and you can change the colour freely as well. You can now rock an inch-long pink mouse pointer and that just means that Windows wins by default.
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May 2, 2020 14:33
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Star Man posted:
I think the popularity of the mouse helped speed the decline of key commands. I learned typing on a DOS-based Mirosoft Works. As far as I know, CTRL-X, etc. didn't work on that, but you had to use the keyboard to navigate everything. I didn't use a mouse with my first couple of laptops. I'm trying to remember if they had the right port for one.
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May 2, 2020 14:34
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Dip Viscous posted:My first PC had the control key above left shift. smh at these modren keyboards that don't even have a Stop key
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May 2, 2020 14:44
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Data Graham posted:smh at these modren keyboards that don't even have a Stop key Stop+a, for when you really really hosed up.
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May 2, 2020 14:50
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