21ST CENTURY TECHNOLOGICAL CONFUSION
You know that cool guy in the jeans; versus that square nerd in the suit, tie, and glasses on the ad for Apple? Well, that "cool" guy to me is the metaphor of a super intellectual who can do the Rubik's Cube in less than a minute.
It took me years to find the ins and out of the first IBM Personal Computer. Then, by the time the public was going online, we then had to get a grasp on the Microsoft programs for PCs at the same time we had to understand all the new lingo which I thought would be understood as soon as I got Netscape For Dummies' books. I wish I could have understood it, but I didn't. What kind of "dummy" doesn't understand Netscape for Dummies??!! OR ANY OF THOSE BOOKS FOR DUMMIES!!
As soon as I really got a grasp on the ins and outs of the PC and the Internet, I was confounded once every two years with having the damn PC crash or get zapped with a virus. So, I finally got an iMac, and I'm back to not knowing how to put things in columns in their Text/Documents file. I simply wanted to write up an ad, as Tom got a new boat, so we're selling the canoe. Once I got the ad the proper size so I could have six copies on one sheet of paper, then I'd print it up, and cut the six ads to put on various bulletin boards. So, my idea was to get two columns, and have the first draft copied six times on that page.
You think I could just get two columns, let alone highlight the ad the way I wanted it and click on Edit, Copy, and paste, and paste and paste? Well, I ended up having to print it out twice along the top of the paper on each side using the tab. Then I could highlight the whole thing, and copy and paste the two ads twice more on the page.
Oh, I went to "help" in the text file and asked how to make columns... I won't go into detail, as it just didn't, if you'll pardon the word, "compute."
But it's not just the computers and the internet. It is also when I first learned how to program the Video Tape Recorder; when I learned how to connect up the first DVD player; and now it's The Dish Network each time it gets screwed up. In the beginning we got a bad receiver, and I had quite a few ruined days. I first had to talk to a phone robot which was supposed to determine from what I said as to what was wrong with the satellite reception. You'd have to go through this robot, before you could talk to someone live. Once switched to that line, there was quite a wait. Ah, how I missed the simplicity of just moving the rabbit ears to a better position.
My son August just gave me a GPS unit for my car called a TomTom. [The fear of another electronic gizmo scared me, but it is almost as simple as the first telephones, you know, the kind you simply took off the receiver and talked into.] My point here is that what we need in this technological world is a TomTom to take us on a simple route through the technological mumbo jumbo of instructions, for assembly and the later problems that arise. The written or phone instructions are composed by a person with a 140+ IQ, or explained over the phone to us underlings is like having been thrown under the wheels of this tractor trailer world of technology. It's like phoning in the instructions for first aide instead of having an rescue squad come to the scene.
When our electronics are having tantrums and we can't seem to get them to work logically, or when they seemingly break down completely, the technological lingo on paper, or from the tech squad on the phone SHOULD be understood by the AVERAGE person who usually has a 99-120 IQ. Oh, we learn, but it takes us a LONG time. We have to go without that mind's GPS the wizards of technology seem to have, which is like a kind of built in global positioning system for the super smart generation of technological intellects.
I think the children who get their cheap Fischer Price type tech stuff that can be walked on, thrown down the stairs, and accidently dropped into the bath water, learn how to use this stuff along with learning how to crawl and to walk. Even before they can talk they are now snapping pictures with that digital camera that their parents struggled to understand by reading the manual that came with the complex gadget. I'll bet those young adult parents learned more from their child's Leap Frog programs than what they learned from operation instructions on their adult type programs of PCs and iMacs.
To have call Tech for information on any electronics, like to get your computer problems solved when in a jam, is like doing something as debasing to our own ego, as those screwed up people who debase their bodies by cutting themselves because of the inner hurt of their emotions. It's like cutting up our emotional well being. We feel so f---ing stupid after conversing with the tech people, I'm left with a little more know how, but crippled up with a shattered ego. I have to admit that the live people with whom I've talked with at The Dish Network, are kind, and make it simple by taking you step by step through whatever your problem. However, I feel like the Gumby in a Monty Python skit where one would go around saying, "My brain hurts!", as when I have to translate what the technician is saying on the phone, and push the right buttons on the remote or receiver, and report what is happening on the screen, when all is said and done and I'm off the phone, I feel like a Gumby and end up yelling, "MY BRAIN HURTS!!"
George Will's column this morning mentioned something called Occam's razor. It was about dissecting today's health care debate... He likened it to "the mind's equivalent of a surgeon's scapel... In solving a puzzle, start with the simplest explanatory theory." Well, nothing could be simpler to my way of thinking how things should be done. The high tech world has to hire the average intellect.... someone with an IQ higher than 120 couldn't qualify. The electronic gadget's instructions would have to be understood by that level of brain power, and written by him or her once they can understand it on their level. That's all. I'm not sure it's what was meant by Occam's razor in this mornings column, which was meant for a higher intellect [What was "I" doing reading that??], but it is to my logical mind the smartest thing to do: "in solving a puzzle [as every freakin' gizmo ends up being] START WITH THE SIMPLEST EXPLANATORY THEORY."
I hope the heck some techie reads this and spreads the word.
You know that cool guy in the jeans; versus that square nerd in the suit, tie, and glasses on the ad for Apple? Well, that "cool" guy to me is the metaphor of a super intellectual who can do the Rubik's Cube in less than a minute.
It took me years to find the ins and out of the first IBM Personal Computer. Then, by the time the public was going online, we then had to get a grasp on the Microsoft programs for PCs at the same time we had to understand all the new lingo which I thought would be understood as soon as I got Netscape For Dummies' books. I wish I could have understood it, but I didn't. What kind of "dummy" doesn't understand Netscape for Dummies??!! OR ANY OF THOSE BOOKS FOR DUMMIES!!
As soon as I really got a grasp on the ins and outs of the PC and the Internet, I was confounded once every two years with having the damn PC crash or get zapped with a virus. So, I finally got an iMac, and I'm back to not knowing how to put things in columns in their Text/Documents file. I simply wanted to write up an ad, as Tom got a new boat, so we're selling the canoe. Once I got the ad the proper size so I could have six copies on one sheet of paper, then I'd print it up, and cut the six ads to put on various bulletin boards. So, my idea was to get two columns, and have the first draft copied six times on that page.
You think I could just get two columns, let alone highlight the ad the way I wanted it and click on Edit, Copy, and paste, and paste and paste? Well, I ended up having to print it out twice along the top of the paper on each side using the tab. Then I could highlight the whole thing, and copy and paste the two ads twice more on the page.
Oh, I went to "help" in the text file and asked how to make columns... I won't go into detail, as it just didn't, if you'll pardon the word, "compute."
But it's not just the computers and the internet. It is also when I first learned how to program the Video Tape Recorder; when I learned how to connect up the first DVD player; and now it's The Dish Network each time it gets screwed up. In the beginning we got a bad receiver, and I had quite a few ruined days. I first had to talk to a phone robot which was supposed to determine from what I said as to what was wrong with the satellite reception. You'd have to go through this robot, before you could talk to someone live. Once switched to that line, there was quite a wait. Ah, how I missed the simplicity of just moving the rabbit ears to a better position.
My son August just gave me a GPS unit for my car called a TomTom. [The fear of another electronic gizmo scared me, but it is almost as simple as the first telephones, you know, the kind you simply took off the receiver and talked into.] My point here is that what we need in this technological world is a TomTom to take us on a simple route through the technological mumbo jumbo of instructions, for assembly and the later problems that arise. The written or phone instructions are composed by a person with a 140+ IQ, or explained over the phone to us underlings is like having been thrown under the wheels of this tractor trailer world of technology. It's like phoning in the instructions for first aide instead of having an rescue squad come to the scene.
When our electronics are having tantrums and we can't seem to get them to work logically, or when they seemingly break down completely, the technological lingo on paper, or from the tech squad on the phone SHOULD be understood by the AVERAGE person who usually has a 99-120 IQ. Oh, we learn, but it takes us a LONG time. We have to go without that mind's GPS the wizards of technology seem to have, which is like a kind of built in global positioning system for the super smart generation of technological intellects.
I think the children who get their cheap Fischer Price type tech stuff that can be walked on, thrown down the stairs, and accidently dropped into the bath water, learn how to use this stuff along with learning how to crawl and to walk. Even before they can talk they are now snapping pictures with that digital camera that their parents struggled to understand by reading the manual that came with the complex gadget. I'll bet those young adult parents learned more from their child's Leap Frog programs than what they learned from operation instructions on their adult type programs of PCs and iMacs.
To have call Tech for information on any electronics, like to get your computer problems solved when in a jam, is like doing something as debasing to our own ego, as those screwed up people who debase their bodies by cutting themselves because of the inner hurt of their emotions. It's like cutting up our emotional well being. We feel so f---ing stupid after conversing with the tech people, I'm left with a little more know how, but crippled up with a shattered ego. I have to admit that the live people with whom I've talked with at The Dish Network, are kind, and make it simple by taking you step by step through whatever your problem. However, I feel like the Gumby in a Monty Python skit where one would go around saying, "My brain hurts!", as when I have to translate what the technician is saying on the phone, and push the right buttons on the remote or receiver, and report what is happening on the screen, when all is said and done and I'm off the phone, I feel like a Gumby and end up yelling, "MY BRAIN HURTS!!"
George Will's column this morning mentioned something called Occam's razor. It was about dissecting today's health care debate... He likened it to "the mind's equivalent of a surgeon's scapel... In solving a puzzle, start with the simplest explanatory theory." Well, nothing could be simpler to my way of thinking how things should be done. The high tech world has to hire the average intellect.... someone with an IQ higher than 120 couldn't qualify. The electronic gadget's instructions would have to be understood by that level of brain power, and written by him or her once they can understand it on their level. That's all. I'm not sure it's what was meant by Occam's razor in this mornings column, which was meant for a higher intellect [What was "I" doing reading that??], but it is to my logical mind the smartest thing to do: "in solving a puzzle [as every freakin' gizmo ends up being] START WITH THE SIMPLEST EXPLANATORY THEORY."
I hope the heck some techie reads this and spreads the word.
posted by Cranberry Jo @ 6/25/2009 01:16:00 PM
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