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As children, we learn from adults. The dawn of the computer age brought a lot of change and reversed that role for many of us. Since I make a living off software and writing about software, I am a welcome guest in the homes of many elderly PC users. That's usually not a problem, they have taught me about the world some 30 years ago so I should gladly return the favor in today's world of computers. I should ...
But there are two mysterious phenomena that remain inexplicable to me. Two whimsical conditions that keep intelligent human beings from sending off an email or burning a CD...
Peter E. stared at his screen in disbelief, visibly scared by Microsoft Outlook 2010. "How can I send my message now?". He had taught children orthography for more than 30 years, rode his bike all the way up to the Atlantic, repaired vacuum cleaners and radios for his relatives and now he was at his wit's end. I switched into "you can do it" mode and asked him kindly to take his time and look at the available options. As minutes went by, I knew that I was facing the first phenomenon - the sudden inability to read. Once your eyes and mouse pointer start wandering across the screen aimlessly, this state of mind is all too easily reached, a sort of nirvana without the Buddhism part. It might be worth checking whether this may come in handy for hypnotherapy sessions or as a sedative because those affected appear totally gone.
Peter had this sense of calmness about him. After a while, I said "On the top left", he awoke from his fixedness and carefully took aim with his mouse pointer. When he got to "New E-Mail Message" he stopped. And then - nothing. No click. This is the second phenomenon, fear of destroying your PC with a single click. Another unfathomable mystery.
Taking a sober view, I can see some programmer built in a button and it appears rather unlikely that it will instantly shred your PC! And yet I can see the fear of hitting an unknown control in his eyes even when it is perfectly obvious what it does. How is this possible? Are people afraid a click will expose naughty images and send them to their relatives? Unlikely, it is simply fear of the unknown, fear of unexpected consequences and fear of failure with keyboard and mouse.
To get around this, my "students" like to rely on pen and paper to carefully write down a step-by-step solution. This may work to some degree, but it is ultimately analogous to sticking a load of post-its to the dashboard in your car explaining how to hit the brake and clutch while holding on to the steering wheel. It prevents you from getting the broader picture. To grasp the logic behind it, you have to read, observe and practice.
I once explained the intricacies of Ashampoo Burning Studio to a senior executive of a large German company in a sales pitch. I was prepared for the worst and had a speech ready for every possible occasion but in the end, I had to do very little talking. He just read and clicked! Without hesitation, he tried out the various features, went back and forth, looked at previews and burned a disc with a broad grin on his face. He had never seen the program and was no computer scientist - he was simply curious and brave. That's exactly the key to getting to grips with a new piece of software. And don't think for a second that I use a different strategy! Even after 25 years of PC work, I still employ the old trial and error approach. The more applications you get to know, the more parallels you will recognize and the faster you will get going with new programs.
Your PC is a playground, not a prison! Good software is intuitive and displays features in a clear, logical fashion. Have fun with it, click your way through your applications and discover their available settings. You will be surprised by how many possibilities will open up to you and feel at home very quickly. As kids, nature gave us all the tools we need: Curiosity, a lust for experiments and a good dose of trust that nothing disastrous will happen.
Since 1985 I have had one or two problems with Hard drives. I do not trust them completely. I have an excellent back up program that allows me to back up my C drive 240GB SSD to another drive. If all else fails I boot from the backup program CD and restore. (This takes 8 - 10 minutes.) I have Hard drives which hold all my documents and they are copied to another hard drive. Call me chicken, but I can experiment with other operating systems with impunity. BTW I keep at least the last 3 C Drive backups.
Interesting! From now on I shall brush up my curiosity, develop a lust for experimentation and cross my fingers to gain good dose of trust......
Hi, bingo, it works.
Jeff.
The world of computers is a beautiful place, and just like real life, it is what you make it. I have been using and building computers for 25 years and the state of the art is amazing. My advice, immerse yourself in the virtual world, go the directions you enjoy - it is a university of information, connectivity, and fun that never ends.
Damn, how did you get to read my mind???? Yes I have 5 stickers on my computer at this very minute. notes that I have written ,so as I do not forget, what I do forget then when I want the notes that I put away, yes that is right ; WHERE DID I PUT THEM??? I lived in a big city & help was near by. Now I live in the bush & I have no help. You don't/DO know how I feel as I over burden my self with the fear , should I or/but that could/might not be the right thing to press. It was said to me recently, trying to master a thing a me jig= SMART PHONE!! plus where is the Smart person to come with it & self teaching myself at an OLDER age "These knowledgeable persons show/tell you haw to do it!!!! but they forget all about the STEPS
in between & I start to become cross with my self for not achieving what I have been told, then accusing my self as being dumb & only belong to the abacus age. See, I lost this comment, it hid some where!! Any way u r so right. Just showing off Daryl. "Possum Tales"
In 1954 I pulled the power switch for the last time on MIT's Differential Analyzer. It was as big as my house in Southern California. It was used during WW2 to solve trajectory problems (buzz bombs) for UK. (I was busy in the war in the Pacific at that time, including the attack on Pearl Harbor.) But in '46 when I was discharged I went to MSC (Michigan) then MIT, then hired in at the Lincoln Lab where the computer was located. Now at 97 years I am still in computers with a couple of desktops (with Ashampoo stuff on them), and three laptops (I put Ubuntu on one of them)) which were given to me by other old people in exchange for helping these old people learn their computers all the way up to Windows 10. I must confess that the technology of the computer has not been boring to me at all.
First, I would like to begin, by saying, thanks a million, for creating another priceless, extremely nourishing, and very much intuitive products, and/or much demanded services, designed to jog the mind, and to train us to think, see, and hear with a critical, revolving, 3D blinking eye, right back at us, engaging us, challenging us, and testing us, to the utmost dimension. we must be shaped and molded, consequently, as techno savvy as possible, in an ever-changing, advancing technical world, by which we live in these days, to stay abreast of it all, and not be dismissed, in between a heavy mist. Because of such amazing, extensive inventions now, educational, marketing, advertising, tools, DVD's, CD's, DVR's, Smart TV's, Software Packages, anything you need and/or want to know, from, how to do something, anywhere from AtoZ, or how to operate something.
I'm 71 and a Vietnam Vet. Also an ex-police officer/16 years on a Southern Calif Department, with 8 years undercover in a Narcotics Task Force.
What can a computer do to me?
I learn from it everyday. See things I couldn't imagine 20 years ago. Share photos with family regardless of where they are. Use games to keep the head balanced & busy.
Everything in the article is a true history of rapid development of computers. Thanks to the author and commentators!
I am always experimenting with new software (being involved in music production, composing, video making and photography). As some respondents have mention, the world of computer technology is running so fast, that mistakes and surprises are happening almost on daily basis - even if You are not trying something new.
I had my computer on fire while I was playing piano on a cruise ship, with music notes on screen...
I have lost all contents of my other computer, due to the hard disk deciding that it has enough and doesn't want to work any more.
So, the technology and gadgets are still fragile. If you drop your external hard drive with important documents or memorable photographs, you will experience sad funeral to of your treasures.
I agree, with one of my predecessor here, that reading manuals is the last thing we want to do... However, it is good to read at least appraisals, reviews or comments of recent users, of the software or any equipment, your are looking for. This could make your decision safer. Of course, as everywhere, here are marketing, advertising gimmicks, trying to steer you to something what they want to sell.
Professional people working in this field are doing their best, to simplify recovery, speeding and easing processes. Despite that, encounters with surprises are inevitable.... Incidentally, when trying to upgrade an old Mac PowerBook, by mistake, I have used "fake" disk and that computer found it's way to waste bin. Supposedly unrecoverable.
Finally. to expose just the fragment of my experiences list - my current laptop is originally from Japan and despite many changes and resets, annoyingly it's often coming back with Japanese language... I speak that language only for tourist needs...
So, I wish you all patience and still having a desire to experimenting with new "things" and... even if you are not at my age (only 70), write notes: what you have changed, new password etc.
Good luck and feel happy about computers - despite sluggish and discouraging networks! It was never before possible to talk to someone on the other side of the world - FOR FREE!
PS. FREE is the world we treasure when we retire! Ha! ha! ha!
Yes it all sounds too close to home so as an 80 plus I shall approach my PC with a brave heart!!
Loved the article. I started with punch cards and COBOL at University. In 1982 I built a Z80 based machine that had programs burned in EPROMs. Later I modified it to have 64k memory, one 5 1/4 floopy disk (single sided) and run CPM (forerunner of DOS) as the operating system. The way to learn was to think and try. If all else failed just restart.
When the 8088 processors came along I built a new machine and read a bit more about DOS. With hard disk machines the big trap was not reading the screen and just hitting return for some functions. Failure to type A: when formatting a floppy meant the default was to format C:. Result was to wipe the hard drive and give you a few hours extra work restoring programs and data files.
How things have rapidly progressed - I used to think communicating at 300 baud on a bulletin board was "greased lightning"
Still love what computers teach us - that is why I am on the computer at 11:20pm!
So true !
Being in my 90th year, Really enjoyed the article & comments. I've experienced nearly all of them over the years & have worked on the principle of - 'if all else fails, read the instructions' !!!
It rarely fails. When confronted with the BSOD, remember that there are lots of of people on the web who will be happy to help you via Google !! Happy battling Folks !!
couldn't agree more, but would like to add that viruses and Trojans seem to be 'built in to some free software. I also suspect that some 'removal' programmes create and then delete material to try and convince us that it is doing a good job. ( I'm a Senior Citizen)
I am not as old as some of you and used to work as an analyst/programmer on COBOL/DB2/SQL mainframe computers. Got my first pc in 2000 and hooked up to dial up internet straight away. We used to call the internet the "World Wide Wait" back then. How much the net has changed since then with broadband, streaming video etc. I am somewhat afraid of pushing that "wrong" button as I was once trying to fix my friends computer and I accidentally re-formatted it. She wont let me near it for any updates etc anymore lol. So yes beware if it asks you to reformat that you actually do want to reformat and lose all the information on your harddrive. Otherwise the net is smooth sailing. And yes I'm 46 years old.
Very, very true.
Love it
Thank you for patronising the elderly.
Do you know what year computers first went into the London City Banks? Well I will tell you it was 1960. There are men who joined bank computer staff in their 20s straight from UNI, served 30 or so years, retired in 1995 and are now in their eighties . It is a newspaper myth perpetuated by people like you that computers are a young person’s game.
In those days programs were written in binary i.e. 0 and 1s onto coding sheets and the computers were fed by punch tape. One bank put all its accounts on to a computer that had only 64k of RAM yes that is right only 64K it ran all night writing a bit to tape then did some more processing wrote it to tape and then repeated the process all night long. Those programmers really were geniuses.
As it happens I have crashed a PC with just one click that wiped out all the memory chips and the Intel processor of my computer. I had shut down the PC before I had intended to. Without thinking I hit the boot button in a vain attempt to stop the process and it wiped out my whole PC apart from the hard drive. When I could not restart my PC I called in the boffins who told me the bad news.
It is impossible is it not, but it happened.
Hello,
Will Ashampoo please develop software for the self-destruct button you described in your post. Thank You.
NR
Washington DC
Then; Tandy and TRSDos.
Now; Win 7 & 8 with Windows Home Server for backups.
A somewhat rocky road in some places.
And, of course, Ashampoo. :-)
Cheers and have fun!
of course, entering the term`google` into google will break the interweb, as any fule kno!
anyways, a helpful article none the less
I find this a very perceptive comment. I am 74 years old and have been using computers since the late 1970s. I have owned a ridiculous variety and number of laptops and PCs, smartphones and tablets, using computers at work (as a newspaper reporter and editor) and at home. I bought my first laptop in Singapore in 1988 or thereabouts. If there's one thing I've learned it's that whenever you're stumped, take a little time to calm down, read whatever instructions you have at hand carefully, and just have a go! Click through menus, any menu you come across, is almost my motto. Like the writer, I find myself spending a lot of time sorting out "problems" for my fellow geriatrics, most of whom see computers as miracles of totally incomprehensible "modern technology".
Although I still see it as helpful if the people I assist with their computer problems have at least a rudimentary understanding of the structure behind it all, which is, of course, even today, still the old DOS etc, I've learned to leave well enough alone if the client simply doesn't "see" it.
I think a lot of the problem is that older people have trouble separating the machine from the software that runs it and on it. It's a miracle machine and it scares them that they don't know what goes on in there! If something doesn't work they think they've done some catastrophic and either start pounding random keys, shaking the whole machine or just give up and stare at it in fear and confusion. "What have I done?" etc.
The first thing I always say to them is, don't panic, whatever you have "done" can be undone - usually by just a few key strokes. I try to leave them with a minimum of "instructions", and, I admit, often just restrict myself to just getting them going again. It's wonderful when they think I am an absolute whiz. I am not, I've just worked with computers for almost 40 years and everything I know about them is what I have taught myself. "How to books" were wasted on me although I did read a lot of computer magazines!
Neil Naessens
Townsville - Australia
Sven you've opened a Pandora's Box with all of us old folks. Like others I believe I began with an Abacus and progressed from there. I built my own, installed many, repaired many more but there were times I wished there was an easy self-destruct button. Boom, end of problems - and I have the reputation of a guru.
And so my love/hate relationship continues.
Great article.
don't push the red buton ........don't wory i have instalation cd and 9 lives
absolutely , you have nailed it on the head.
Thats me all over, have hardly ever read an instruction except in desperation.
I loved the article which reminded me of the fears and anxieties which accompanied me since i began playing with computers, both a work and at home. even though I am 85 years old now I still am facinated by computers and software. I have learned to enjoy them and spend hours with them. needless to say my wife is not too keen about my preoccupation with those electronic mistresses. my advice to newcomers to the field is read the manuals and don't hesitate to use the trial and error system.
happy computing
david