Slashdot Mirror
Late Adopters Prefer the Tried and True
smooth wombat writes "There is a fairly significant portion of the population which does not go out and grab the newest OS, gadget, web browser or any other technology related product. Why? It's not because they're luddites but rather, they are comfortable with what they know. Take the case of John Uribe, a 56-year old real estate agent who still uses AOL dial-up and only recently switched to Firefox after being prodded for weeks by an AOL message telling him that on March 1st, AOL would no longer support Netscape. Why did it take him so long to stop using Netscape and make the switch? From the article: 'It worked for me, so I stuck with it. Until there is really some reason to totally abandon it, I won't.'"
Which leads me to a motive I did not find in the article, the motive of the company I work for that employs several hundred thousand employees. There is no push to go to Vista or IE7 so they don't do it. They're late adopters in almost the same sense as no one's asking for it, Microsoft has not yet found a way to force the enterprise community into this pigeonhole and so none of them will do it. On an enterprise level, there's no such thing as 'early adopter' as companies are too busy taking financial and strategic risks to welcome technological risks or 1/10 of their employees failing to have a computer for a couple days.
My work here is dung.
A quick John Uribe search on Google turns up a man divorced twice.
So much for sticking with it, eh?
I'm sure his viewpoint will be thoroughly panned in these comments, but honestly, the computer and tech industries as a whole could do with more of this. Too often we're sold progress just for the sake of progress, without enough benefits to outweigh the cost of transition to a new [platform|framework|device|etc].
As someone who has been burned by new technology multiple times, I can certainly appreciate this approach. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Live by the sword, die by the sword.
All this doesn't mean I don't like new technology. However, all the years of work in IT and high-tech startups have taught me that the best innovation one can achieve is a more simplified interface. Technology with more features and thus more complex interface is thus not truly innovative in my book.
Interesting. So, what is your take on the recent developments in moment and portal frames in engineered wood construction? I find many people woefully ignorant of even the most simple principles of home construction, and yet practically everyone owns a home. Flashing? EIFS? That's not even getting into energy recovery ventilators and the latest developments in composite lumber products. Nearly every computer tech I know still lives in a house with a common furnace or heat pump, and *gasp* an unreinforced concrete masonry foundation, even though there are far more modern and superior systems which do so much more.
What was that? You just use your house to live in and it works just fine? Oh...
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
I work in an industrial environment and one thing you want is stability. Being an early adopter is the antithesis of this. So I may not work on the latest and greatest, but I know that what I do work on is rock solid and will keep running for an extended period of time.
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
Real Estate people and offices are KNOWN for being incredibly out-dated. Also Realtors tend to not be technologically savvy. The BEST Agent I ever met not only adopted technology with a furvor but took her time to learn it. She is selling homes at a good rate even now when you are insane to try and sell.
But the office there where I support them. It's a nightmare. W95 machines still in use! Old 14" monitors that are dark and almost yellow now running on Pentium 133 processors. They refuse to spend the money to upgrade because "these work, why replace it?"
The one machine I did convince them to replace with new I at least gave them XP and several people complained about it.
I also found that this is common in Lawyers offices and accounting offices as well. Incredibly outdated gear and software still in use. It's like they are afraid to spend money.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
...but because they fear it or because they are too lazy to learn how to use it.
These people do not bother me... It's the ones that are too incompetent to learn how to use one and try anyway.
Part of the reason Spam and malware still exists is because of these kinds of people.
This signature is lame.
In my line of work, doing tech support, I run into this every single day. The older generations, 40+ have no concept of technology and most of them don't want to.
Ignoring the fact that much of the basic technology you speak of was invented by folk who are now over 40, how many time a day do you run into people who think they know what they are doing and install a beta of something which bites back and screws them over?
Bravo, I couldn't have said it better myself.
In my experience with Realtors, they are very set in their ways computer wise. Of the four houses I've bought and sold in the last 15 years, I never cease to be amazed at all the pointless faxing rather than emailing. Sure there is almost a verifiable paper trail, but after the contract has been faxed 5 times, I could be signing a document to have my colon invaded weekly instead of my house sold.
Sheldon
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
I think you're taking it a little too personally.
I am not a crackpot.
*applause* That was the best analogy I have ever heard on /.
Bravo.
The creator of this post (Jacob Smith) hereby releases it, and all of his other posts, into the public domain.
It's certainly true that the "latest and greatest" often isn't really any better and even when it is may not be worth the transition costs. I know someone who had a thorough understanding of WordPerfect for DOS- every key combination, how to wizard things with Reveal Codes, some understanding of macros, etc- but have never gotten as comfortable with anything since then. Is he more productive because his department has spent money on every word processor upgrade since Word 97? Heck no.
I have opined for quite some time that this is the primary reason most people are inclined to stay with Windows. Other reasons include mission critical apps and what I refer to as tail-wind. Tail-wind would be the other users that get dragged into using a particular application and/or OS simply because associated or other users in the same field or industry use it. (For example, Apple and Mac OS X is used by graphics and design professionals NOT because it's better [the same hardware is used by PC clones] but because that's what everyone else uses.)
Evidence of the "because I'm used to it" mentality can be shown in much public resistance I have witnessed from Office 2007. I have users that have tried it and hate the user interface. They would fight me if, for some reason, I wanted to switch to Office 2007.
So all those "this is the year of Linux on the Desktop" people (do people still say that?), this is what has to be over-come and it's just not something anyone but government and big business can actually take on. The change has to be forced on people.
Just stop expecting support from developers. If your old, non-compliant browser doesn't render new sites well, blame it on yourself for not upgrading. I've had this situation with people and their cars. I've known older people who think I'm insane for buying a new car and driving it till it's got 150K miles, and then dumping it. All they focus on is the depreciation when it rolls off the dealer's lot. But then, these same people will drive an older, used car that they can afford to replace until crazy things like the key won't flip on the ignition because the teeth are all worn down to the point of being useless. So I say it's nice that you're not an early adopter. Just be rational about replacing what you use.
In my youth, I jumped on new stuff more quickly, and I often regretted it. Often the only thing good about a new product is the marketing. It's often easier to use something that's outdated than to use something buggy. And even if my outdated product is also buggy, at least I know where the bugs are.
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
No they are not stubborn. Maybe you think keeping up with technology is a good proxy for intellectual growth. A car geek would probably say the same for his favourite hobby.
As people grow older they find other ways to grow intellectually. And a lot of these other ways have nothing to do with technology (un)fortunately. Volunteering at schools and hospitals does not need technology.
Certainly this is sometimes true. My father, for instance, spent three or four years complaining that Win98 didn't work before I finally convinced him to upgrade to XP.
On the other hand, a lot of people really don't have a need to upgrade. "But the new version of [whatever software] has so many more features!" I hear you cry. (Well, someone's yelling it, anyway.) But they don't need the new features. And in order to run the new version, they'd need a new computer, a new operating system, and time to learn to use both. I know a few people who are still running Photoshop 5. Why? Well, because it suits their needs, and they already know how to use it. Why spend time and money on a new product when the old one does what they want? Sure, the new one has some neat new gadgets, and some things might get easier, but for them, the time spent learning it is more valuable than those new features.
Change for the sake of change isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it's also not necessarily a good thing. And not seeing a need to upgrade doesn't always mean they're simply being stubborn; sometimes it just means that they're happy with what they have.
Firearms are an area where this dynamic is often seen. There are lots of gee-whiz techno toys in that arena - caseless ammo, (that fucking stupid overhyped) MetalStorm (shit), etc. But when you really need reliability, like when you're relying on a piece of hardware to save your life, you tend to want the tried and true.
:-)
The best example I can think of? The Colt model of 1911 is still considered by lots of people to be the finest fighting sidearm ever. It certainly was in its day. That day lasted until the mid-1980s when the Glock came along. It's taken 20 years, but if you attend a *serious* personal defense class (not one of those "get your carry license in a day" things) where the students select and bring their own sidearm, you'll generally find something close to an even split between 1911s and Glocks. It's taken more than 20 years for a superior design to achieve acceptance by the cognescenti.
Old and obsolete often means tried and true. When I'm betting my life, I like the idea of tried and true. That attitude is often displayed by thoughtful folks in all areas of their life; we like what works and will change only when something demonstrably better is available and the inconvenience of using the old tech becomes sufficiently painful.
In other news, I'm considering switching to a digital camera any day now.
If there is no motive to change people wont change. The degree of the motives are different for each person.
Beta Adopters (Not really beta testers they just use Beta software and don't report bugs) their motive are normally based on being able to use a product when it is released without having to learn it, So by the time it comes out it is already the tride and true. So their motive to change is the fact that things are changing and they want to be start off running. Also they can honestly fill out on their resumes that they have 5 years of Vista Experience. (making them look like experts)
Early Adopters much like the beta adopters but they want to reduce the risk of blowing up their systems. But still once it moves from Fad to Normal they want to be the group who says I have it. And those people who apply for Jobs and actually say they do Have over 2 years experience with Vista.
Normal Adopters The technology came in the kinks have been worked out and all points show this is way things are going to be. So lets jump into the bandwagon and get back to work. Failure to change will cause them to get behind and become undesirable.
Late Adopters... This article.
Old Phogies... These people are not nessarly old in age but so resistant to change that they will come with any excuse to defend their position. USB Is Too Complex for a keyboard and mouse. Serial Connections are easier to program, also you can really bolt the device onto the system so it wont go anywhere. If the program can't run on 640k of RAM that it is unessarly bloated. The old system had components largeenough so you can replace a broken part where now you need to buy a new card. And Ignoring things like USB can handle many devices without having to internally expand you computer, The lack of thumb screws makes it easier to move the system and set it back up. The Time saved by making programs memory hogs allowed for cheaper software to be developed (today any CS Grad can program a program like Lotus 123 within a few weeks and its selling price if comerical would be like $10.00 vs Hundreds of Dollars back when Lotus was new.) The fact that the old parts would fail an average of once a year vs. an integrated card will run for years on end being a better value dollar wize... But that wont stop those guys. You can take my PDP 11 from my cold dead hands.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
From the fine article:
Actually, I suspect it may be more that "they are UNcomfortable with what they DO NOT know." People have a certain range of stimulation with which they feel comfortable. Below that, they feel bored. Above that, they feel overwhelmed. (Shut the *%&^* up!) And, that range of stimulus with which one person feels comfortable can be quite different from someone else's comfort zone.
I prefer a lower level stimulation than average. If I go shopping at a mall, I can last an hour, maybe two. Then all of the music, bright lights, shiny ads, conversations, and general din get to be too much. If everyone perceived it that way, then it would scare away shoppers, and they'd "fix" it. So, I accept that and make it a point to take a break for a few minutes of quiet time and then I'm good to go for another hour or two. I don't really mind, I've come to realize that this same sensitivity has benefits, too... I've had a great career in software quality assurance.
My point is that these "late adopters" may be already close to saturation on stimulus, and as much better as the new stuff may be, accepting and adopting that change could be the straw that [at least in their perception] breaks the camel's back. It's easier to deal with the incremental challenges of an old technology, than it is to take a chance on a big change. Or so it seems to them.
So in summary the article is "humans found to be averse to risk and change"? Hasn't that been known by psychologists for ages? Humans (as a species) are happy with what they know and don't like the unknown. New technology is, to many, an unknown, ergo they don't like it and avoid it for as long as possible.
Besides, who needs half of this flashy trash anyway? iPhone? Pah, I'd still have a Nokia 3310 if it wasn't about as cheap to buy a 3510 as it was to get a replacement battery for the 3310, and I'm 23.
Yes, there are many, many stubborn people out there. Like the ones who still drive ten year old cars rather than the newest, shinier ones with all the bells and whistles they will never use like GPS, an iPod plug, tv screens and so on. Or maybe the ones who still use a vcr to record their tv shows because they don't have to leave it on whatever channel they want to record without having to pay extra for a service to pull down their shows.
These are horrible people who are devastating the American economy because they refuse to go along with the marketing mindset that if it's new, it must be better, and so you must go and spend, spend, spend.
The older generations, 40+ have no concept of technology and most of them don't want to.
Hey dipwad, I just turned 41 and I can tell you, I have more of a grasp of technology than the vast majority of 20 somethings wandering around my building acting as consultants for an ERP project. The fact that I choose not to have a cell phone, iPod, Blackberry and other electronic gizmos does not mean I have no concept of technology. It means I don't care about that stuff. Having any of those items will not enrich my life in any way, except maybe the iPod.
For the record, while there are people older than I who do not care about computers, I can tell you I have encountered quite a few, including my mother, who want to learn. In fact, the reason my mother uses a computer, other than keeping in touch with people, is, in her words, to keep her skills sharp. She retired ten years ago and still wants to learn. How about that?
If it requires any sort of effort to learn, people try to pretend its not there and stick with what they have until it is no longer a viable option.
You mean like driving a manual transmission, right? Because it's so difficult to learn how to push in a pedal and move a lever.
This saddens me greatly.
What saddens me is people like you on their high horse who think that everyone must always be on the cutting edge. That the latest and greatest is the only way to go. If you don't own what the marketing droids tell you to own, you're not worth the time or effort.
I work with people like you and let me tell, in the time it takes them to find the piece of information they want, or perform whatever task they want to accomplish, I generally have time to go get a drink or take a shit before they're finished, it takes them that long. These are generally the same people who constantly complain they have no time for a life, relationship or anything else because their Blackberry is constantly buzzing or they have to answer an IM.
If that's the kind of life you want to lead, be my guest. Most people don't give a shit about gadgets and do-dads but instead, want something to work well and last a long time.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
Quality thinking is rare enough that it should be rewarded.
I proudly announce 2 weeks ago I bought my first video cassette recorder. For $10.
45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
Please see the definition of Luddite and try to think more clearly in future.
Rich And Stupid is not so bad as Working For Rich And Stupid.
That's what a colleague of mine in a huge CPA firm believes in: trailing edge. No debugging. Everything's fixed by the time he gets there. Users probably already know about the apps and all. Parts are easy to find, maybe on eBay or CL. Lots of books and docs and howtos are easily available. All the service packs are out. Interoperability problems have been solved. Goose it with faster hardware and things work the first time out with little fear of reliability or interoperability.
Is he crazy? No, just so financially conservative that I've seen holes clean through the bottom of his shoes. And he leads a very uneventful life. There might be some wisdom in that. Consider not having to constantly patch stuff through the first half of its life cycle. Or that everything you've deployed has a chance of still working with everything you've deployed without a lot of drama.
He won't jump out of an airplane with a parachute. But I will. And I'll get the latest stuff. And I'll aggressively integrate it and denigrate the vendors whose stuff isn't baked when it arrives in a 'production' version. Is he wiser? Perhaps. Duller, too.
---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
Seriously, am I expected to be jumping for every latest advancement? I can't be expected to buy every new damned piece of technology out there, software included. Sure, I like gadgets, some are useful and some are just fun, but this sure as hell doesn't mean I can afford all of them, and I refuse to get into debt just to satisfy some sort of technolust.
It's an obvious point, but people seem content to ruin their bank balances just to stay on top of this shit.
Frankly, I really wish that developers would work on actually fixing the bugs in the old software, instead of dumping it all for the next "upgrade" with a completely different set of user interfaces to learn, and new gee-whiz features that almost work, or at least would work, except that everybody else isn't compatible (but will work really shiny when everybody gets on the wagon, really!).
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
I applaud your brilliant analogy, but I think you missed the GP's point to an extent. He didn't say it (which is probably why it could be missed) but I think his implication (from his gripe about being in tech support) was that these people who know nothing about the tech still ASK about it, and that's a problem.
Clearly, you know at least a bit about home construction. Now imagine if all day every day people who "just own homes and live in them" came to ask you stupid questions about construction instead of going off and learning on their own. Then, when you politely suggest they learn something about it, they act as if they don't need to or just blatantly don't want to.
The person in the article is probably not one of these people from the looks of it, so if my reading of the GP's post is correct, he's offtopic anyway, but I just thought I'd try to defend his viewpoint a little!
My book about LSD and Self-Discovery
Also on facebook as: DroppingAcidDaleBewan
One of my big reasons for dislike of Microsoft and others with market muscle is the forced adoption cycle, just for reasons of marketing and bottom line.
In the case of operating systems, increasing bloat means that a lot of hardware goes into landfill and a lot more energy is used, each time. Even when the hardware doesn't go into landfill, it's recycled (more often than necessary) using and distributing toxic chemicals.
As another poster said, 'if it ain't broke don't fix it' that used to be one basis for good engineering and it's certainly got ecological consequences.
On y va, qui mal y pense!
No, I realize all those things would be good, and I would like to rebuild the house to include them.
Except that I don't have hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Oh, and its nothing like a new browser, which is free and should take minimal time to "learn." If I could rebuild my house with all that stuff for such a minimal cost, I certainly would.
Superbly stated! It can be difficult for those of us who love computers and electronics to understand, but MANY people just use a computer as a tool. I confess, I still use an old, rusty, shovel. I've resisted the ads to upgrade to the shiny, slimmer bladed new ones. For me, they aren't worth the time it would take to buy one. And then I'd have to recycle the old one. Now that I think of it, I bought the old rusty one at a tag sale...and it was old and rusty then.
Well the stats at W3Schools delisted Netscape in 2007, but they're still showing a percent and a half for Netscape.
So it's a good bet.
ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
I personally tend to be a mix. I wait until I see bleeding edge technology that I *MUST* have, and use it to build a machine that is extremely powerful and top of the line. That machine will then last me 5-8 years, or more so long as I take care of it and keep it properly maintained. For me, bleeding edge turns into old school tech that works "good enough" for a good long time.
:: Marge: Grandpa, this flag only has 49 stars on it
:: Grandpa: I'll be deep in the cold, cold ground before I recognize Missourah!
But seriously, they're saying he's a late adopter when it comes to upgrading his browser, but that's to be expected for his demographic. You could turn the same kind of thinking around on a younger demographic by pointing out that 20 year olds are _much_ slower to adopt the newest treatments for atherosclerosis; talk about late adopters, thirty years behind, and by then the treatments will be completely different. "They'll be so terribly behind the times, how will they catch up?" you say. But anyway.
A 20 year old with atherosclerosis would be an exceptional case, so taking pharmaceuticals to treat that condition wouldn't be early adoption. Likewise, the idea of calling an 81-year old AOL user a late adopter is moving outside the usual bounds of discussion when it comes to software/technology--it's exceptional that he's using it, apparently as an architect e-mailing maps and photographs. Actually, he should be retired. Off to the Near Death Star!
I agree, but I have to ask... since I am a (relatively) new home owner.
:P
How does one learn the "tricks of the trade" without asking? I can read a million books on sill repair, but I can get a lot more information from the friends I have, and people I work with who have gone through this in the past... to realize that yeah, using the lollie columns in my basement may jack the house up and I only really need to move it up 3/8ths of an inch and repair the rotted section... but still, talking to someone who's -done- it is worth a lot, too.
I think that "thought process" or attitude is where the same technology questions come from.
Just my two cents.
(Oh and do you know how I can stop the sill rot without having to replace it? The house is 130+ years old, etc...)
Most people update computers when they stop working usually from malware or Windows dieing. It is easier and some times cheaper to buy a new PC than to do a nuke and pave. A PIII is really good enough for a lot of what people do. In your example a Pentium 133 is good enough for them to do what they need to do.
Changing Accounting systems is a HUGE pain. If your current system is still supported and works why change? If your old PC is still running why change? I can see the logic of getting a new LCD screen for the power savings but in businesses it often is wise to keep what works until there is a benefit to changing.
Heck for the average office worker keeping them on a PIII and skipping the hyper hot and power hungry P4 probably would have been a brilliant move.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
Well, interestingly enough... before I'd even gotten to your comment I had visualized my father in the GP's post.
.pdfs and attach them.
.pdf program. I didn't know how either, but I did it anyway because I knew how to open files in MS Word and just took a shot at the same method in the .pdf program. File -> Open. However, my father had to call me up to teach him how. I'm not saying I'm better, I'm in the same situation reversed. I know jack-squat about homes and had to ask him for help when I do any work around the home. As a result of the informaion I got from him I was able to renovate the basement without paying for someone else to do it.
He's a home-inspector and a caricature of this comment exchange. He's well aware of the details to take into account when inspecting a home, when he wanted renovation or construction done in the house he did it himself.
In front of the computer, where he communicates the results of his inspections I had to teach him how to left click, right click, and double click. How to manage windows(minimize/maximize/close). How to open files, save files. He originally hand-loaded the printer 5-10 pages at a time(It was an ancient and slightly broken printer, but this was as recent as 2002). He would then fax them to the customer, again, 5-10 pages at a time(also ancient). So I had to teach him how to send an e-mail, scan notes and diagrams into
Now the other home inspectors are using template documents to speed up their reports instead of starting with a blank form for every house. Now he needs to compete with other home inspectors who are taking pictures of homes with digital cameras and including them in the reports.
He taught himself home inspection through self-study until he could pass license exams. After which he was required to take classes to get 6 credits of inspection courses a year as part of the license requirement.
But I teach him everything he knows about computers. He doesn't want to explore. I taught him how to open a file in MS Word, but he doesn't know how to open a file in the
These unknown fields are scary, but there was valuable payoff for both of us in the end for exploring these things.
I crunched my 98 VW last year and bought another of the same model/year/trim because I already have a ton of parts, tools and knowledge about that car. I can R&R the cylinder head in like 3 hours, and I know all the weak points and what to look for.
120k miles and going strong. Just need to replace the timing gear tensioners some day.
Blar.
I count my family among them. My wife has learned a few simple tasks, one way and any deviation from that no matter how slight is a catastrophe. You know the mail window in Netscape/Seamonkey? You know how you can have multiple folders? Yeah well if the topline gets clicked to collapse the view my wife starts screaming that someone 'broke' her computer. In fact she's never even started the browser from an icon. All she knows how to do is open the mail client and start the browser from that. Every document is on the desktop because she won't put anything in a folder else it 'gets lost'. Hell, I just recently after years and years convinced her to use DIFFERENT documents in Word. Till then she had almost everything in one gigantic document that had everything in a long trail of hundreds and hundreds and hundreds pages and to find a particular 'document' she'd just scroll through until she found the right page.
So in the end, whether it's some kind of brain defect, or a passive aggressive martyr complex, some people are just untrainable and you're wasting your time trying.
I'm wondering the demographics of this study. I've found that those 25ish and younger have a much easier time adopting and transitioning to newer technology than the older folk. Probably on account of it is what we have been doing our entire lives.
Wow, lets all be glad someone from tech support is here to set us straight. Here is some news for you, there are a lot of stupid people out there, and a lot of them work in tech support. Tech support have this amazing ability to not understand that most people don't know the same things that they do. Which makes me laugh, since tech support people generally know VERY LITTLE about IT.
So if someone doesn't want to own a computer, how can you say that they have a need for it? And what are they doing talking to you in the first place.
I'll admit, it was rugged, but inaccurate as all get out. Basically, a .45 caliber belly gun. Any decent revolver was a better sidearm for self defense. And nothing beats a 12 gauge shotty for close in household defense.
Best Slashdot Co
I needed a new roof, so I hired a roofer. We'll call him "roof support." If he would have told me to learn more about roofing and that my questions were stupid, I would have fired him.
Next, I needed my AC serviced, we'll call him "HVAC Support." If he would have told me that my questions on general maintenance were stupdid, or he would have said "RTFM" I would have fired him.
I pay people for support for jobs that I can't or don't want to do myself, if they suggest that I learn more about their jobs to make their lives easier, I fire them and get someone that meets my needs.
I've always said there are two types of people. Those that produce most of the work tend to stick with what works, and those that innovate tend to always try the newest things at the cost of production. Both types of people are needed. If it were for the lower producing innovators we'd still be living in caves, after all, they worked great for our needs. So one group doesn't change that fast but gets the drudgery done, the other group doesn't get as much done, but keeps us moving forward.
how is a business supposed to get ROI if they have to constantly have to upgrade and pay for retraining, testing, and upgrade blackmail (errr..... ummmm... I mean 'licenses).
There is a reason why there is still a lot of cobol out there, ROI. Why switch when it works? Switching is risky and costly, as anybody who was sucked into an ERP project has learned.
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
W3Schools server traffic is not a good representative sample of web traffic. According to NetApplications Netscape is used more than IE 5.
What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
The ones that annoy me are ones who are clever and capable but want to not learn things because they feel that their lack of knowledge is a sign of their superiority.
There are plenty of people who have got better things to do than find out how to use something. There are some who are just not able to and even some who are frightened by it.
If someone is scared of technology, I will sympathise and try and sort things without worrying them. If someone else is so busy learning their job that they have little enthusiasm for learning IT fair enough. If someone is so arrogant that mustn't learn how to check if something is actually plugged in then I feel that they may be a waste of DNA.
I'll see your Constitution and raise you a Queen.
I think the point is that if you already have a house built with conventional wood framing techniques, you would be a damn fool to rip out your floor joists so that you could install the latest composite lumber structural system.
Now replacing your HVAC system with a more efficient model when the old one breaks, is certainly a good idea. But the other point is that software dosn't really wear out, and so if it does what you need it to, why replace it?
Kurt
40+ is the older generation now, I guess I should be worried at 38 then. I'd make a Logan's Run reference here, but I wonder how many people would get it?
I remember my Mom learning the computer, because she worked in a library. She started out not even being able to use a mouse, now she's fairly proficient.
On the other hand, I'm still baffled by her entertainment system with it's 27 remotes. Ok, so I just want to watch the TV. This one turns it on, this one turns on the sound, and this one changes the channel? Is that right? Oh, brave new world, I remember when I had just 1 remote (Nowadays I have two, one for my TV and one for my DVD player.). I usually just ask her to do it when I'm over her house. The worst is when she has Bill O'Reilly blaring and I turn off the TV, and I can still hear him because turning off the TV does nothing with the sound...
"MIT betrayed all of its basic principles."
What is your point? That people ignorant to one thing don't care about it and people schooled in it overestimate its importance? Guess that succeeded. If not here is my take:
There is problem with buying "DualMegaCore 10GHZ" equivalent of housing. Or pretty much anything other important.
If you buy new tech toy (they are that, just toys) and it gets broke, you replace it with newer toy and it hardly effects your life.
If go into new house technology, you have to stick with with for 40+ years. If you chose brand new tech you risk greatly running into problems. Its definitely not great thing to find out that you floor heating system gets broken and that you spend several times worth value of conventional system replacing/fixing it. Considering that house building leaves ordinary person short of funds, they would have to live with broken technology for some time. That is not really that great. If you chose wrong structual elements you wont even be able to inhabit it.
There is just no telling what happens in 5, 10, 20 years, unless you see example of it that old or believe marketer (which is not smart). And you need to know that.
Great example is heating: With conventional radiators, you can plug anything that produces heat and it will work. New technological gizmo that does same thing will force you to dedicate yourself to it, and thats not worth it.
Computers don't need to last that long, ofc, but upgrading to new version just for sake of having new version is wrong, deeply wrong. If nothing, it is waste of money and can cause serious business problems. Why waste money on something that can only produce problems?
-- Technology for the sake of technology is as pathetic as eschewing technology because it's technology.
Paper and pens have yet to crash, require patching or accidentally reveal any credit-card information on anyone (Netcraft confirms this); why not take it even further?
throw new NoSignatureException();
I bill $130 an hour. How many hours would it take to be as proficient in Open Office as I am in Word, or better yet Excel, I wonder? I would suggest that to be as proficient in either would likely take between 60 and 100 hours. Just a couple of weeks of training, which is far less than a single college course, but even if the training were free, it has an opportunity cost of around $10,000. For a "free" upgrade.
Besides, not all construction is replacement. If you add a deck or a sunroom, or remodel the basement, you're looking at new things. Of course, like all analogies - mine is nowhere near 1:1. The point is that new things take time and effort (and often money), and we all can't be abreast of the latest (or even recent) developments in all fields. There aren't enough hours in the day. To think everyone will find interest in _your_ field or hobby is a bit vain.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
It might keep you rich but it will never put you in the position to beat out the competition... cause they also have access to the tried and true and probably have as much expertise at it.
Obviously each industry has different tools that they need to be on the cutting edge with for competition... but there are efficiencies to be had by adopting new tools in non-core areas. IT is one of these areas for ANY industry.
It certainly is an opportunity cost scenario. If you are a 3 man operation and don't need an IT infrastructure to improve communications, then new IT tech doesn't make sense UNLESS you want to grow beyond a 3 man operation.
The biggest problem with sticking to tried and true is that you don't know what you're missing out on. you have no idea what opportunities new tech or new methods will bring to your business. You are ignorant, possibly blissfully so but still ignorant. This means you have no room for growth as an individual as a professional or as a member of your community... and that means we all lose out on your potential. You could be the person who introduces incredible new innovations in productivity or quality of service but we'll never know since you ignored the opportunity to find out.
In conclusion... you'll never get rich by being ignorant of new ways to become rich (financially and culturally and professionally). Too bad, I was looking forward to reading about your various breakthroughs and further enriching my own life by hearing of your accomplishments and being inspired to achieve my own.
A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
I live on the trailing edge. It's easier, more comfortable, cheaper (how's that HD-DVD purchase looking now?) and makes much more sense. You don't end up buying into much that disappears quickly. You don't end up with teething problems. You don't end up wasting money on vast amounts of testing because other people do that for you. You don't end up worrying about that next big upgrade which is "vital" because one bit of software demands it. You just wait until EVERYTHING demands it or, more likely, nothing demands it and the project dies a death.
I do network management for schools and this is the only sensible way to go about things. You cannot upgrade every single bit of software to the latest version as soon as it's released. Too much breaks. Even Windows Update throws default printers, etc. onto a clean machine and that's the easy stuff to detect and clean up.
For instance, last year one school went from Office 2000 to Office 2003 (Yep, that was our upgrade last year - and that was forced on us by the "people above" because 2000 is such an old number, basically. Nothing to do with practicality, compatibility or anything else and we'd already installed the filters that let you open newer Word docs etc. so there wasn't a simple complaint when other schools switched to XP/2003/2007 and started sending us their files). That simple upgrade broke everything - printer allocations, all our Office GPO settings, basically every PowerPoint file in the school, some software called Mindjet Manager that just so happened to be on the desktop of all the top-dogs in the schools, you name it.
The Mindjet problem wasn't even documented, we found it out the hard way (some sort of DLL conflict to do with the order of installation that just crashed the program without error - sysinternals utilities saved the day again!). Upgrading breaks more than it fixes about 75% of the time.
The only reason to upgrade is if you get something out of it. That's how companies sell upgrades - "look what you can do NOW". If you don't need that thing, or can already do it somehow, then why upgrade? Just keep plodding along with your perfectly working software with all the latest security updates that does everything you could possibly want.
Even Becta (the UK schools IT bods) recognise this - they specifically recommend not to move to Vista or the new Office until EVERYTHING has been checked out thoroughly, i.e. give it a few years yet. Better the devil you know and all that. This is why MS is having a hard time selling Vista - it's only the "we must have it because it's got a shiny new version number" crowd that are the ones actually pushing for it and unfortunately sometimes they are in charge.
What happens in a modern office that is totally impossible with a old office suite? Not a lot. And most of it is power-user features that most places won't even touch. Even I never use 5% of the functionality of Excel, Word, etc. when I'm doing budgets with pretty graphs in and the kids are basically doing DTP using Word (against my advice, but hey, Word works and we have it so why spend money on something else?) and they aren't using 5% of it anyway. Where's the incentive?
And you don't get bitten anywhere near as often. Schools go through fads - we had interactive whiteboards and flatscreens and the new ones are "Virtual Learning Environments", electronic signage (a big telly with an advert on it) and wireless classroom trolleys filled with laptops. Every single fad starts up, fails miserably in a number of schools (usually because they have copied it straight from the commercial sector and are thinking along the business-consumer lines rather than "THIS IS A SCHOOL. It might not work like a business does.") and THEN the suppliers learn what the schools want/need and bring out the really useful gear that the following schools can then actually use - for instance:
Soft whiteboards got vandalised by the older kids. So they changed to hard.
Hard whiteboards weren't tactile enough for
You missed the point. Not everyone has computers as a "hobby," and can invest their limited time in learning all about them. It's not about building, it's about the thousands of fields with which we interact every day. How much do you know about farming? About amino acids? About detailed nutritional analysis? You eat every day, it's critical to your health, and it's a small fraction of your expenses. What about exercise techniques? Are you following a traditional regimen of walking, lifting, and stretching, or are you up on the latest trends in low-impact cardio and tailoring to your physical attributes?
As I get older, I find more and more things of interest, and yet my day seems cruelly fixed at 24 hours, 7 of which I must spend sleeping in order to get the most out of the other 17. I have to make conscious decisions what I give up and what I pursue. I'm || this close to giving up golf altogether, though I find it enjoyable. I just don't have time for it.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
All I want is to use the online banking features. It saves me tons of time downloading everything directly into Quicken, by not messing around logging into 12 different web interfaces to 12 different banks. But, every version timebombs after three years, and I'm forced to buy a new one. The new one has so many extra features that it's usually 10 times slower, because my computer is a few years old. Now I have to upgrade the entire freaking computer to run one piece of very important software.
What I want to do is to use my software indefinitely, until I decide to upgrade.
I can explanate how to administrate your network. You must configurate and segmentate it, so it can computate.
I would love to know where that number comes from. I could certainly believe that 1-2 million people in the US carry guns for defensive purposes. But I would be shocked to see evidence supporting that 1-2 million actually used their guns defensively.
Carrying a gun and using a gun are two very, very, different things. Just because you have it doesn't mean that you are inherently safer because of it.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Do you live in a geodesic dome? Do you have an electric car? How about your mower, does it hover or run on wheels? Do you have a roomba, or a plain old vacuum cleaner? We all have areas we're interested in and areas we don't care much about, and select the technology we use appropriately.
Actually it probably means you have a better grasp of technology than the average. You understand what actually works for you and reject anything that is just *shiny* *shiny*
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
I bill $130 an hour. How many hours would it take to be as proficient in Open Office as I am in Word, or better yet Excel, I wonder? I would suggest that to be as proficient in either would likely take between 60 and 100 hours. Just a couple of weeks of training, which is far less than a single college course, but even if the training were free, it has an opportunity cost of around $10,000. For a "free" upgrade.
First off, I was talking about a web browser, not office software. Second, your point is obsurd; 100% of the hours available to you you're not going to make billable. You're likely going to take 1/3 of those for sleeping, and probably another 1/3 live your life, and that's assuming you work every Saturday and Sunday. So those hours you wouldn't normally bill anyway are not part of your opportunity cost. Also, since you probably use those programs on the job, you'll likely be paying yourself to learn something new. Finally, I would think that no matter what field you are in, if you stop learning, you're going to become obsolete. So you'll need to take some time, whether billable or not, to learn.
Besides, not all construction is replacement. If you add a deck or a sunroom, or remodel the basement, you're looking at new things. Of course, like all analogies - mine is nowhere near 1:1. The point is that new things take time and effort (and often money), and we all can't be abreast of the latest (or even recent) developments in all fields. There aren't enough hours in the day. To think everyone will find interest in _your_ field or hobby is a bit vain.
I realize not all construction is replacement; if its new, there's less cost than replacing something existing. But we're not talking about construction, we're talking about people using older browsers. The cost there is minimal, since even modern browsers have Back, Forward, Stop and Refersh, and some way to track favorite sites. Not exactly a huge learning curve, and you can decide to look at the new features at any time.
I never said people can or should keep up with the latest everything, but they should be on the look out for something new and at least look into it a little. As in construction, sometime cost up front saves you more down the line. Like when the cost of maintaining my old car outweighed the cost of just getting a new one.
Some old people are scared of change. My father is 87 and just switched to an iMac. I think the fact that I switched had something to do with it, and I'm way over 50.
I'm still running Windows 2000 and Word 97. The later Microsoft OSs are worse. windows 2000 was the last Microsoft product where the user was in charge. After that, they're all slaves to the mothership in Redmond, with a steady stream of updates being pushed at you, some of them hostile.
Actually, this is because I'm not developing for the Windows desktop. My real work in the last few years has either been on Linux servers or real-time QNX machines. So the desktop machine just doesn't matter that much. I have a current Firefox, OpenOffice, Python, Java, etc. I just don't see any need to buy any of Microsoft's products.
The article mentions David Gans and the WELL as a late-adopter person and institution, respectively. Gans is host of the syndicated "Grateful Dead Hour", and of course the WELL has its roots in '60s counterculture.
They couldn't have picked better examples of late adopters, and interestingly ones that aren't just that way because of psychological inertia, but because they clearly know what they want and what works, and they know that it's not the latest shiny cutting-edge stuff.
Ok, there's also "late adopters don't like spending money" or "late adopters aren't that interested in gadgets", or "late adopters don't adopt early", but this seems a little obvious to me.
You may have a point. Until then, sometimes reasonable people will need tools to deal with the criminal actions of unreasonable people. Look at police response time to 911 calls, and what can happen before police show up. Or even notice that societies still need police.
After all, it takes every member of a group to decide to get along, but only one person to decide they want conflict.
A Human Right
I don't think people who work tech support mind being asked basic questions - they're in the wrong line of work if they do..
What is annoying is the attitude you get from a few who simply refuse to learn. I know bugger all about housing, but I'll try an analogy - you ask a few basic questions in a building supply store, and I doubt anyone will mind answering. You ring them up and abuse them down the phone because you failed to ask the basic questions (or even refused to listen to the guy who tried to explain something to you because you thought you knew everything) and bought the wrong stuff, and they'll get annoyed.
This sig all sigs devours
Let's see, I'm typing this on my main PC, which I literally found in someone else's trash four years ago (and its two 40GB hard disk were used freebies from the office). Though I never use it, there's a VFAT partition on one of the disks with Windows 98SE on it. I finally got a DVD drive for it last year.
My laptop, with a 133Mhz Pentium, 48MB RAM, and an 800 x 600 screen, was bought used 10 years ago from a friend who was in grad school (and thus on a tight budget herself). I've been using it quite a bit recently, to learn Lisp programming on (X + IceWM + Emacs).
The internet connection is 100MBps optical fiber, but I just plug my PC in directly for PPPoE -- no wireless router or anything like that.
Got an iPod last year - a 512MB Shuffle which was a hand-me-down from my girlfriend. Until then, my portable music player was a Sony MiniDisc-Walkman, which I still use for live recordings.
My cell phone is seven years old, and it cost nothing when I got it.
Stereo is a 15-year-old Nakamichi receiver, still in good condition -- better than the flaky Sony DVD player I bought four years ago.
OK, maybe I'm just a cheapskate. But really, I can't think of anything that I'd really want to go out and buy - that sort of thing happens only about once a year. (And I could well afford any such thing if I wanted it.) Basically, everything still works, and until it stops working, I feel it's a waste to replace it.
...and with thanks to the Firesign Theater:
;-)
"Big light slated to appear in eastern sky. Sonic booms scare minority groups in Sector B. And there's hamburger all over the highway in Mystic, Connecticut..."
And if someone who's actually IN Mystic can confirm that, I'm sure we'd all be grateful.
Keep the peace(es).
Bruce Lane, KC7GR,
Blue Feather Technologies
There is such a thing as a late adopter with a cause. Shoot, I'm a late adopter of Windows because the new releases always have glitches and always overwork the current generation of hardware. The thing is this example of the guy with dial-up AOL and Netscape is the perfect example of someone who is stubborn and stupid. They are stubborn because they won't change until they HAVE to and they are stupid because they ignore the benefit of change. This guy is using Dial-Up and paying a price which is twice the going rate for dial-up. Plus if he got DSL or another type of broadband for seemingly the same price he could talk on the phone at the same time. Lastly, Netscape has been defunct for some time while Firefox is updated constantly. If that's not enough reason to switch then I don't know what is. So this guy isn't a late adopter; he is stubborn and stupid.
There, fixed that for what I think you were trying to say. You have to _have_ the gun if you're going to use it as a sober and grim last resort. And, you have to depend on it quickly unless you think the _true_ fascist or criminal will wait like a super-criminal for you to speak your mind first.
FYI: I don't own a gun because I recognize myself as very accident prone, but I do own a crossbow and a usable longsword if things get crazy. ;-)
Different strokes for different folks. As for sweeping generalizations, I am 40+, and I program for a living and keep up with technology. Anyways, there are other people out there who do not find technology as compelling as you (or I) do. I would say that they have appreciation for a lot of things that you do not care for too. Their lives can be as rich and fulfilling as your's. Some of them would probably be happy for you to be as thrilled with technology as you are and are not saddened that you probably don't give a crap about things they are interested in.
The closest advice I can give you involves a partial replacement but not with wood. This Old House had the exact same situation on one of their houses. The solution was to use a dremel tool to carve away the part of the sill that was rotten and then use a two-part replacement compound to fill in the cracks.
The compound had two parts which were mixed and looked like a neutral color of Slime (you remember Slime, don't you?). They used a putty knife to apply the compound to the sill and let it cure. Once cured, it can be sanded just like wood and made to look like the current sill. Put on a primer and paint and no one will ever know.
No, don't ask me what the name of the compound was but I'm sure someone at Home Depot or Lowe's can point you in the right direction.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
To be fair, a house tends to be bought used, not new, and some of the ideas you suggest would require a teardown & rebuild.
Even the more minor improvements may not pay for themselves before the house is planned to be sold, and improvements such as a more fuel efficient HVAC system probably doesn't increase the house price enough to offset their cost.
The Army doesn't believe that the pistol has any purpose other than to shoot someone who gets in your face - beyond hand-hand range, you have a rifle. What a pistol has to do is be rugged as all hell - when you need to shoot one, you REALLY need it to work without fail, and it has to make the guy you shoot lay down and stop bothering you. Which is why the .45 was invented - the older .38's didn't get too many one-shot stops in the Philippines.
Civilian 1911's tend to be very accurate (far more than you need for self-defense - you don't do self-defence at 50 yards, unless you like prison time) and very reliable. And when you shoot someone with one, they tend to lay down and stop bothering you....
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
Try reading the arguments made by Nicholas Carr in the article "IT Doesn't Matter". The article is a bit dated for the high-tech world (published in May 2003), but the arguments are still valid. Argument with respect to this topic is that early adopters take huge risks and rarely receive the returns they expect. More often than not end up losing. Same applies for companies that invest early in emerging economies. Wait for the early adopters to work out all the bug/kinks and find best practices. Jump in once they do.
Oh right! (I do remember slime... :P ) But I think I also remember seeing something where they applied a liquid like "rot stopper" into the original wood, too - and in conjunction with this 2-part putty, it stopped the rot and the hardened putty was harder than the original wood.
Thanks for reminding me about that stuff. I'll have to see how it works out when the ground dries out over the next couple of months.
The older generations, 40+ have no concept of technology and most of them don't want to.
Yup, any day now you youngsters are going to figure out how to put a man on the moon! I also hear tell that some of you think it's possible to send moving pictures using radio waves. Durn kids! Stop reading those pulp magazines, they'll rot your brains!
Now get off my lawn!
Let me put this in a way that a fellow geek would understand.
This guy not upgrading to latest and greatest OS, Browser, etc. is just like how geeks buy a piece of clothing and wear the same thing until it literally disintegrates and then buy the cheapest, least hip clothing available to replace it.
Unlike the hipsters who are in-the-know with the latest fashion trends, scouts latest runway shows and buys the $2,000 shiny Prada pants and replaces it when it goes out of fashion the following year.
It is pretty much the same thing.
What version of Netscape was he running? If it was 4.01, or 6, I'd have to laugh at the guy. But it was Netscape 8, that browser was just a branded repackaging of Firefox, so in a way he would have been fairly up-to-date with 8, and barely switched browsers by going to Firefox. Even if he was on Netscape 7 he would have had a fairly modern version of the Gecko rendering engine that both Netscape and Firefox share. This article makes it sound like he installed Navigator 4 in the mid-90s and never upgraded. I have a hard time believing that, judging from his nice metallic flat screen display.
I'm usually the latest adopter of my circle. My PC is usually a generation or two behind everyone else's (Athlon XP 2500+ barton core, just built back in December), my video cards can be even further behind (I just "upgraded" to a Geforce 6200 from a Geforce 2MX, but still have a TNT2 and Matrox G450 in service). I bought my first MP3 player back in June and it's a cheapie Sansa model. It took me years to stop using Mandrake 7.2 because it just worked and each new distro had issues I didn't want to deal with and and didn't have to deal with with the old trusty one. The only reason I use WinXP is because of a single application I need: Digidesign's ProTools. If if wasn't for that, I'd still be running Windows 2000 and Cubase 5.1 to compose music (I finally upgraded to Cubase SX3 earlier this year). I still use FL Studio 6 even though FL8 is on the verge of release and it took me quite a while to even upgrade from FL5.
If it works, why change??? In the case of upgrading my PC, I was able to do my work and play the games I liked, so there was no need to upgrade. I only upgrade when it's absolutely necessary, as was the case of a new plugin I got for Cubase (NI's FM8). Back in 2005, that forced me to finally get off of the P3-850 I had been using for years and upgrade to a 1.3GHz Athlon Thunderbird.
In most cases, there's no REAL reason to upgrade. There's people out there right now still using Win98SE, Office 97 or 2000, and IE6 on a P2-333 and they're quite happy with that setup. To be 100% honest, I would believe that the majority of the PC using public would be just fine on such a machine (I happen to have one such machine at home, it's the one with the Matrox G450 in it). We're told we NEED the latest, greatest whatever but in reality don't need it. If you're a gamer, yeah I see a need to upgrade constantly. Hell, I just downloaded the Crysis demo and, while it does run on my PC, I know it's not running well, it's got me considering a video card upgrade. But how many people still use a PC for small tasks like email, IM, occasional web surfing, word processing, and their taxes? Quite a few. Do you really need a Quad core pc with 4GB of RAM and Vista64 to do these things??? Nope. Just about any old pc can do it just fine.
Fifty watts per channel, baby cakes.
From the article: "Yahoo updated its popular Web e-mail service last year, but tens of millions of its customers stuck with the company's "classic" e-mail."
The real reason I HAD to stay with the "classic" interface is because although I'm running Seamonkey 1.1.7, Yahoo claims my browser is incompatible with their new interface. I even tried faking the user agent to IE and FF, and it still wouldn't work.
now take someone who wants to know how to change the oil in their car. So you calmly explain how to do it, step by step, showing them delicately and politely. 3000 miles later they come running at you bitching because they can't change the oil, and you fucked up the instructions... so you start asking questions, and you find out they the took off the oil filter with a hacksaw and poured the new oil into the transmission filler.
I'm not saying the attitude is proper, but when we've gone above and beyond to help you out and you fail to read or heed basic first-step principles, I have no sympathy.
Your heart is in the right place. I really believe that. My experience leads me to believe differently but I still respect your viewpoint as forward-thinking, a goal for the future. Still, I think you overstate your case when you say
Some years ago a man who wanted nothing more than my death unloaded a shotgun in my direction. I was not in danger. He was a drunken fool, unable to aim and too far away to be effective. I had the option to conceal myself and chose it.
At no time, however, did I think to myself "I should go over there and use the force of my thought to dissuade him from shooting at me." Oddly, perhaps, that thought never crossed my mind. "I wish I had an option other than running and hiding" did occur to me, along with "If the .44 revolver in the trunk of my car was, instead, in my hand, I'd be in a better position."
Some years before that my mother was gang-raped in the washateria of her apartment complex. Of all the thoughts and feelings she had at the time and since and has been willing to discuss with me, the notion that she should have used the force of her thoughts to stop them has never been mentioned. She has, however, from time to time expressed regret that she neglected to take her .45 with her that day when she did the wash.
I reject the notion that either of us is evil, dumb, or insecure because we place value on the concept of possessing the means to meet violence with superior violence. I submit that we are quite secure that our view of the world is reasonable when it leads us to the conclusion the owning a gun is a good thing for good people.
I grant that you are correct that owning a gun is a bad thing for bad people. Find a way to make them give up theirs first and maybe we can make some real progress.
Agreed. But that provides no justification for denying the noble man the use of arms. Quite the opposite.
Sounds like they'd be more than happy to be fired by you. The HVAC technician didn't take the job to answer your questions and give you the benefit of his training. That's a terrible value proposition. In the technician's shoes in your little example, I'd gladly be beheaded in your royal highnesses' court so long as it meant your AC would not function for at least several fortnights (or until you found a suitable technician amongst the proles).
---Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A START
No one expects people to learn about a computer tech's job but we do expect them to learn how to operate the damn computer. If you went into a mechanics shop because your car quit and he tells you it's because you ignored the warning light that was on for a week, is he just trying to make HIS life easier or is he trying to help you? Even if he's a bit condescending, can you really blame him?
All I'm doing is suggesting you remove your foot from your mouth. BTW, it wasn't just math that put a man on the moon - it was technology. There is a difference between not needing or desiring every new piece of technology and "not wanting to learn."
I'm 48 and agree with you completely. Your post is not flamebait.
Many older folks won't even use improved tech they ARE familiar with because of some visceral fear of change or ingrained habits.
An experienced mechanic I know is too cheap to install a two-post auto life he can easily afford (and which would turn him a nice profit by speeding his work) but the lunkhead sticks with floor jacks and jack stands. I don't know the name of this sort of thought process, but it's quite common.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
If you are smart enough to bill at $130/hr and provide consummate value back to your customer, then you could probably pick up OO in about 5 minutes. If you are actually smart enough to need features that differ between the two, then it will take you about 5 minutes to learn where those features are in the OO suite (given your higher intelligence). If you are so dumb that you are confused by differently shaped buttons, then you won't have need for any use beyond the most basic text-editing abilities, so it will take you 5 minutes to learn all the features you are capable of using. So, about 5 minutes no matter what.
In my experience, it works just like MS Office--hey, but maybe I'm a genius so things come easy to me. I can never tell the cases where I am brilliant or where other people are just plain stupid.
Also, you will have to get over the "but I didn't pay for it so it must suck" barrier. This will take the average person approximately 16 years, depending on intelligence. Very, very smart people don't have this barrier, so you may be able to ignore it. If you are one of these complete retards that somehow equate OSS with communism, then you should find some way to remove yourself from the gene pool or, alternatively, pick up a basic primer on Sociological Theory.
Just callin' it like I see it.
I agree, and his remarks about tuneups are hilarious if you understand what's under the hood. New cars still require regular maintenance, but they don't require tuneups! Old cars needed tuneups because the springs in the distributor would wear out, throwing the timing off, and the jets in the carburetors would get clogged with fuel varnish, messing with the fuel-air ratio. Modern cars don't have distributors because their dwell and timing are controlled by a computer using a toothed gear attached directly to the cam or crankshaft, no springs to wear out or contacts to erode. Assuming the gear doesn't break off completely, timing will be exactly the same at 300,000 miles as it was when the car rolled off the line, no adjustment or tweaking required. The fuel-air ratio is measured out more precisely than a carburetor, again using a computer to inject fuel based on engine load and RPM. That same computer will even retard timing if the engine knocks, or shut off your engine if the temperature gets too high to prevent you from destroying your car accidentally. This makes cars more efficient AND more reliable than they used to be.
'It worked for me, so I stuck with it. Until there is really some reason to totally abandon it, I won't.'
... it's just that he doesn't understand them, or simply isn't aware of them. And that, I'm afraid, is the reason that AOL still exists as an ISP.
There are plenty of excellent reason to abandon AOL
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
I'm still running Windows 98SE.
Turns out that in a virtualization environment like VMware Server, it's reliable and stable and behind a Linux firewall, it's moderately safe. And on a Athlon 64/4200 dual core box with 356M memory allocated, it's pretty fast.
I may move to XP eventually on the VM, but since the purpose of running Windows in any form of this box is to run Windows legacy apps and I haven't installed a new major Windows app on this thing in years (haven't needed to)... what's the rush?
Not to say I'm a total luddite, my base OS is Debian testing/unstable.
Tech Public Policy stuff
Based on skewed world view, which is that the only reason not to buy the latest gadget it because you're stupid, lazy or hopelessly stuck in your ways. I'm an early adopter at work because I need to be and they pay me to deal with all the problems of new technology. At home I want to relax not fiddle with all my gadgets (Yes, I'm a slashdot heritic). I also don't want to pay top dollar for untested technology that will be available next year for half the price, thank you.
I never said someone has a right to not be offended - in fact I believe the exact opposite... you can say whatever the hell you want so long as it does not put anyone in immediate harm.
But you also don't get any sort of protection when you piss people off, and saying "Chinaman" or "Oriental" pisses a whole lot of people off.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.