See? Even Charles Babbage agrees with me.
There are some things in life that just confuse people. There are some people in life who just get confused by things. One of those things for many people is computers.
Anyone who's worked with computers will probably have nightmare stories of people who just can't grasp the simple fundamentals. The worst are undoubtedly those who can't grasp the fact that they can't grasp the simple fundamentals. The people who insist that they know what they're doing even as they complain that they don't know what “right clicking” is and tell you to stop using jargon. I thought I'd had a few horror stories myself, having spent entire lessons trying to get friends' Visual BASIC code to work (doesn't seem so impressive when you can't see the spelling mistakes). My personal favourite story to tell revolves around a small group people, kind of like a family. Let's call them “my parents”, “my brother” and “me”.
“My brother” and “me” had convinced my parents to buy a new computer, one which came with a scanner. Thanks to the twin miracles of colour coding and common sense, “my brother” and “me” had the computer up and running for the first time about twenty minutes after it was out of the box. Then “my parents” decided to help with the scanner, which had all of two cables. A little over an hour later, it too was running.
That sounded kind of whiny but I only bring it up because I've been reading some far worse tales of the computer user from hell. I recently discovered a website called Computer Stupidities. A lot of the tales on there are pretty old and my optimistic side likes to think that maybe now people are more likely to know the basics of a computer than people then. “Then” being the mid-90s. My pessimistic side says that people were, are now and always will be idiots. My realistic side didn't know which way to go until it read the quote on the front page:
“On two occasions I have been asked, 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?'
In one case a member of the Upper, and in the other a member of the Lower, House put this question. I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question.”
Charles Babbage
So, MPs, the people running the country in 1864 (and still today, I suppose, but not the same ones, I hope), couldn't grasp the concept of an adding machine. It's a sad, but not uncommon, day when my realist side agrees with my pessimist side. Still, if you know what you're doing with computers and you know people who don't, that website's worth a read.
I say this too much, but more tomorrow night when my arms don't ache from typing hundreds of words on the villainy of Iago.
“Technology advances quickly, people run behind, picking up the bits that fall off.”
Alasdair Corbett
Anyone who's worked with computers will probably have nightmare stories of people who just can't grasp the simple fundamentals. The worst are undoubtedly those who can't grasp the fact that they can't grasp the simple fundamentals. The people who insist that they know what they're doing even as they complain that they don't know what “right clicking” is and tell you to stop using jargon. I thought I'd had a few horror stories myself, having spent entire lessons trying to get friends' Visual BASIC code to work (doesn't seem so impressive when you can't see the spelling mistakes). My personal favourite story to tell revolves around a small group people, kind of like a family. Let's call them “my parents”, “my brother” and “me”.
“My brother” and “me” had convinced my parents to buy a new computer, one which came with a scanner. Thanks to the twin miracles of colour coding and common sense, “my brother” and “me” had the computer up and running for the first time about twenty minutes after it was out of the box. Then “my parents” decided to help with the scanner, which had all of two cables. A little over an hour later, it too was running.
That sounded kind of whiny but I only bring it up because I've been reading some far worse tales of the computer user from hell. I recently discovered a website called Computer Stupidities. A lot of the tales on there are pretty old and my optimistic side likes to think that maybe now people are more likely to know the basics of a computer than people then. “Then” being the mid-90s. My pessimistic side says that people were, are now and always will be idiots. My realistic side didn't know which way to go until it read the quote on the front page:
“On two occasions I have been asked, 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?'
In one case a member of the Upper, and in the other a member of the Lower, House put this question. I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question.”
Charles Babbage
So, MPs, the people running the country in 1864 (and still today, I suppose, but not the same ones, I hope), couldn't grasp the concept of an adding machine. It's a sad, but not uncommon, day when my realist side agrees with my pessimist side. Still, if you know what you're doing with computers and you know people who don't, that website's worth a read.
I say this too much, but more tomorrow night when my arms don't ache from typing hundreds of words on the villainy of Iago.
“Technology advances quickly, people run behind, picking up the bits that fall off.”
Alasdair Corbett
posted by Alasdair Corbett at
11:24 PM
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