I don't change the tyres, the oil, service the transmission or breakpads on my own 4WD either. I get someone trained in the field to take care of that.
Are people still this tech dumb?
- Thread starter FPAlpha
- Start date
I don't change the tyres, the oil, service the transmission or breakpads on my own 4WD either. I get someone trained in the field to take care of that.
My hubby is a tech guy. He is the computer guy for a college Math department, and also helps our neighbors (for a small fee), as well as pretty much every friend, relative and acquaintance we have.
Surprisingly enough, the math professors--people who come up with equations for determining the gait of a horse, or how much fuel NASA will need for its latest rocket---are the most tech illiterate people on the planet. One Prof is still using Pine for his email, others have "password" as their master password for every machine in their office, and one even wrote on his tablet---with a Sharpie--because he wanted to draw a diagram.
My mom, at 78, is about as computer savvy as people half her age. She is a master of digital photography, set up her own webcam to visit with her grand-kids and even installed new software in order to make her own blueprints for their new house. But the Internet just throws her for a loop. While working on her genealogy project, she was searching for pictures of a particular castle. She told me she'd spent hours and hours going through websites trying to find a picture.
"Why don't you use Google?"
"I DID! I've been through dozens of websites and I still can't find a picture."
The poor woman didn't realize that the "images" function of Google meant pictures of the topic you entered. I typed in the name of the castle, hit IMAGES, and thousands of results popped up. My poor Mom was flabbergasted.
Surprisingly enough, the math professors--people who come up with equations for determining the gait of a horse, or how much fuel NASA will need for its latest rocket---are the most tech illiterate people on the planet. One Prof is still using Pine for his email, others have "password" as their master password for every machine in their office, and one even wrote on his tablet---with a Sharpie--because he wanted to draw a diagram.
My mom, at 78, is about as computer savvy as people half her age. She is a master of digital photography, set up her own webcam to visit with her grand-kids and even installed new software in order to make her own blueprints for their new house. But the Internet just throws her for a loop. While working on her genealogy project, she was searching for pictures of a particular castle. She told me she'd spent hours and hours going through websites trying to find a picture.
"Why don't you use Google?"
"I DID! I've been through dozens of websites and I still can't find a picture."
The poor woman didn't realize that the "images" function of Google meant pictures of the topic you entered. I typed in the name of the castle, hit IMAGES, and thousands of results popped up. My poor Mom was flabbergasted.
And I am to be honest- no freaking genious, but apparantly these things are judged by who you are surrounded by
I keep telling people that I only dabble and that I have no experience with or knowledge about their hardware or software.... still, it often times falls to me to "fix" their computers
It's not too bad though; most repairs I've done are the usual turn off/turn on again-type
-When you've done a couple of those after people have been cursing at their computer for a couple of days you do get the reputation of having magic fingers Oh, and there's another 'magic' repair: plugging it in! -not the computer itself, but the device they can't get to work: printers and external hard disks mostly.
Most mathematicians dislike computers. Part of that may be Luddite, but there's also some valid points:
Mathematicians like elegant proofs because they provide patterns and templates that can be abstracted into other theories, so providing greater understanding. But computers tend to do case by case "brute force" proofs, which don't provide any understanding.
The famous example is the Four Colour Theorem. It's a very important theory, because it tells us something about the topology of 2 dimensional space. But the proof of the theory was done by a computer program, so nobody really understands why the theory is true, only that it is. And now, because it's proven, nobody (in their professional role) looks at the problem anymore, so its likely to remain in this unsatisfying state.
Also, if you rely on a computer to solve a problem, you have to trust that the computer has been programmed correctly.
Finally, computation isn't always the most efficient way of solving a problem. Many problems can be solved with a computer program, but the most efficient method is typically not suited to implement on a computer. For example, some problems can be solved in polynomial time, but the best you can manage on a computer is a method with exponential time. So mathematicians see that computers are not the holy grail for problem solving.
It's not really about using the computer professionally.. they have their limits after all but using the tool well.
Those professors are intelligent people yet it amazes me that they can be so careless and illiterate when using this machine.. sure they have an IT department in most universities (and if it's a technological university dozens or hundreds of IT students to keepo the tech running) but if they can solve insanely complicated theorems then surely they may get the idea that using "password" as your password may not be the best idea.
Those professors are intelligent people yet it amazes me that they can be so careless and illiterate when using this machine.. sure they have an IT department in most universities (and if it's a technological university dozens or hundreds of IT students to keepo the tech running) but if they can solve insanely complicated theorems then surely they may get the idea that using "password" as your password may not be the best idea.
You're missing my point. If a mathematician has something against computers in their professional role, they may carry that attitude outside of their professional role, as in stubborn disinterest, and choosing to not be computer literate.
To the OP who asked, "
Are people still this tech dumb? "
My answer: It's a fucking miracle that i can turn this thing on in the morning.
Are people still this tech dumb? "
My answer: It's a fucking miracle that i can turn this thing on in the morning.
I used to have my home wireless network secured with WPA2. Then we discovered that my son's DS can *only* use WEP.
At least I also have MAC filtering turned on.
^and you'd be surprised how many professors have put their stainless steel travel coffee mugs in the microwave. One year, the math department had to buy a new microwave THREE times, and repaint the mini-kitchen once.
I keep waiting for the day when hubby comes home to report the sprinkler system went off and destroyed all his machines.
I used to have my home wireless network secured with WPA2. Then we discovered that my son's DS can *only* use WEP.
Yeah, the DS is one of the only legacy devices that still is used that only supports WEP. It sucks. Actually the wifi network at work is WEP only for this reason (and consequently, doesn't have access to our intranet). MAC filtering is even less useful then WEP though, it's very very easy to spoof.
FPAlpha said:
They don't write passwords down or use ridiculously simple ones because they don't release it isn't a great idea... in my experience it's because they won't remember it otherwise. My dad, who's a university professor and who has been using computers since the days of punchcards, has literally been using the same password forever. He doesn't understand the concept of copy/paste. He doesn't understand that you can get to a webpage via a bookmark or just typing in the address without using Google. He switched over to a Macbook last year, but before that after a decade of Windows still didn't really understand the Start menu of all things. Oh, and he types by hunt and peck. Excruciatingly slow hunt and peck
It's not because he isn't smart or that he's lazy. He does definitely fall into the "absent minded professor" stereotype a lot, but it goes beyond that. There's almost like there's some mental disconnect, the way that he thinks about computers is somehow different then the way that I do. Not that I'm an expert on psychology, but I always figured this had something to do with the concept of schema. It's like instead of shifting to the right mental framework to deal with computers, he's using a schema that was designed for doing a complete different set of tasks.
Don't feel too bad. Some people would argue I haven't figured out how to turn mine off
I am very skilled at software and applications and have no problem installing Windows or driver or whatnot, however ...
I had to order a new CPU for my computer twice because of a comedy of errors with the first one. a) I didn't have the pins aligned quite correctly the first time so it failed to boot up b) Taking it back out of the motherboard to reseat it, I bent some of the pins c) Following careful instructions I found online on how to straighten out bent pins I still managed to break a couple off ruining the CPU.
I got it right on my second attempt (hooray) but it was a minor miracle.
Basically I am a klutz with any kind of physical mechanics, but if I can accomplish it by typing on the keyboard or opening and closing windows and clicking icons, it's no problem.
I think there are different kinds of intelligence. I am very good at figuring out how the computer is working internally, but very bad at figuring out how it (or other electronics) are put together ...
I had to order a new CPU for my computer twice because of a comedy of errors with the first one. a) I didn't have the pins aligned quite correctly the first time so it failed to boot up b) Taking it back out of the motherboard to reseat it, I bent some of the pins c) Following careful instructions I found online on how to straighten out bent pins I still managed to break a couple off ruining the CPU.
I got it right on my second attempt (hooray) but it was a minor miracle.
Basically I am a klutz with any kind of physical mechanics, but if I can accomplish it by typing on the keyboard or opening and closing windows and clicking icons, it's no problem.
I think there are different kinds of intelligence. I am very good at figuring out how the computer is working internally, but very bad at figuring out how it (or other electronics) are put together ...
http://www.theage.com.au/technology...er-neighbour-leached-wifi-20110426-1dugz.html
Man arrested in raid for child porn, his unsercured wireless was used by neighbour.
Man arrested in raid for child porn, his unsercured wireless was used by neighbour.
Yeaahhhh. Well written opening Mr. AP guy. Not at all filled with hyperbole, stretches of the truth or most likely out-right wrong in that all. Well within the standards the AP tries to set for journalism nation-wide.
Similar threads
