At 8:42 AM +0100 9/16/08, Colin Guthrie wrote:
tedd wrote:
3. wasn't something I was going to work on -- not because I refused
to do it for her but rather because I refuse to work with windozes
-- period.
In this case I would have blitzed windows and slapped on <linux
distro of choice> instread (see below for *my* choice :))
I've done this recently... a friend aquired a tablet PC thing. It
didn't let him in as it came with some XP+admin password and while I
could have just made windows work, there were no apps on it and he
only wanted it for surfing the web from his sofa... so the simple
answer there is: put linux on it!
Personally, if I have to help out someone who has a niche little
computer or a niche need, it's a no brainer these days. Linux isn't
hard to use, and if I have to help out my friends every couple years
doing an upgrade than so be it. It's a price I pay gladly for making
my life far less painful in the meantime!
Co:
Yes, but this is where I lack the experience you have. All of the
above you say is foreign to me. My abilities (if any) are to be found
elsewhere.
I know how to set Mac's up -- actually that's not an accomplishment
because you don't have to do anything, so there's nothing complicated
about that -- you just need to explain to people how to use them.
I often set the elderly (yes, there are people older than me) up with
Mac's so they can email one another and "surf" the net. The biggest
problem I've encountered with older-than-me types is having them RTM
-- they simply don't want to do it! So the more obvious things are,
the better it is and I've found Macs to be more obvious and easier
for the elderly to use.
Many years ago (circa 1987) I created a survey about computer usage
and sent it to over 10,000 companies world-wide. I received about a
12 percent return -- this was an outstanding return because 2 percent
is common. I think the survey hit a nerve.
One of the questions I asked on the survey was "On a scale of 1-10,
should a computer be as easy to use as a telephone?"
I sorted the answers per age and found the older you are, the more
you want the computer to be as easy to use as a telephone.
There were a lot of interesting things that came from that survey and
I published my results in the AAPG.
But the point here was there are differences between how people use
computers and how useful computers are -- it's almost a clique that
Mac's are easier and my experience supports that.
Cheers,
tedd
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