I just had an aha moment as to why my parents refuse to get cable TV... the remotes are too complicated. Even I get baffled and I am usually good at figuring things out. Back when my Dad worked at GE he designed one of the first remotes.. it was so simple.... TV on or off... volume up or down.... change channels [of course back then we had a grand total of 3 to 4 channels]. Now look at today's remotes.
Last year Mom got a new washing machine... whatever happened to just ON/OFF,Hot, Cold, Heavy Load, Light Load, Delicate... and that was it. This machine was so complicated even Dad, who is an engineer, wasn't sure how to do a simple load of wash... plus the letter on the machine was in light blue which looked pretty but it was tough for aging eyes to read.
When we get into our 90's, I wonder what technology will be like then... will we need to sit in the dark because we can't figure out how to turn on the lights in the living room using our telephone???
In the mean time, whenever someone calls my parents house and there is no answer after 10 rings the caller gives up.... so Dad will call me asking if I was calling because he couldn't get to the phone in time. No, Dad, it wasn't me..... you really need to get caller ID.... but Dad said he doesn't want to pay the monthly fee.... [sigh].... and forget getting him a cellphone, he would misplace it 20 times a day like he does with his cane :)
When my Dad got his newest computer [he saves all his old computers and printers] he was surprised there was no instruction book.... so for the past three years he's been bugging me to help him find an instruction book at the major book retailers or to drop him off at the library to look for a book. Told Dad I doubt he would find a book, he needs to do like I do, hit a key and see what happens and learn from that. No, he wants a book. Told him to research it on the Internet, but if he did find what he wanted in a form of an instruction book, it would take him a week to print out 10 pages because he's still on dial-up in a huge metro area... he doesn't want to pay the cost of upgrading his internet speed..... oooooook.
and so they can get their ads into your inbox.... Sometimes I wish I could go back to our family house, where 3 generations lived in a 3 story building... and we 2 radios, one telefon... a piano , a guitar, and books .... and mandatory Peace on Sundays ..... no stores open anywhere on Sundays!
She's never been interested in Skype, has no idea how to use her ancient cell phone, doesn't use voice mail but does have an answering machine (but I'm not sure if she checks messages anymore). She and my father never got call waiting either! Which would drive me crazy...
Last summer, her t.v. provider changed, and she got a new remote, and that required me taking another vacation day from work to drive down and help her. It wasn't long before she hit a wrong button and 'lost' the use of her t.v. in her den, and for several weeks (until my next visit, when I reset the t.v.), she stayed in her bedroom, with a t.v. tray, so she could watch the t.v. that still responded to her remote.
I deal with technology every day, like I think we all do, and get around fine, but don't understand the how's or why's of why things work. My husband jokes that if he's no longer around, and I have any trouble with our equipment, I should probably just move! I think he's right! :)
I was blown away - it was perfect for seniors. I tried to get it for mother but it's not Apple friendly. I'll look up the name of it and pass it on.
Planned obsolescence wasn't perfected by Microsoft - I think we can credit the automakers for that. GE I was told at one time also didn't provide extended support for older appliances.
Soon the Woodward Cruise will be occurring and there will be old cars from the 20's cruising up and down one of the main highways here. It amazes me that somehow these old gems can be kept running but mechanics are reluctant to spend the time on a 20 year old car - "time to get another car" is the advice. Gotta keep buying those new cars, especially so GM can fiddle with the ignition switches, make mistakes, and still profit for years from the sale of cars with defective systems.
Gates was I think a marketing genius; he knew how to add more bells and whistles as well as release WIN versions that hadn't been completely debugged. And look where he is now - retired and very wealthy.
I'll leave it to VStefans to explain a batch file; it's been years since I've dealt with that tehnology and my memory is fuzzy.
A GUI is Graphical User Interface which I believe can be legitimately be credited to Steve Jobs who pioneered its use in Apple. DOS is Disk Operating System - your XP and WIN 7 are operating systems as well, but a lot easier (yes, really they are) to use than DOS.
When I first learned how to use computers back in the 90's, many law firms only had DOS based computers. No cutesy little icons, no easy to read instructions. If your computer has ever booted to a checkdisk (chkdsk) mode to scan your hard drives of potential errors, you'll see a monotonous blue screen. That's what we dealt with when DOS was standard. Or maybe the screen was black? I remember typing instructions on a black screen. Very hard on the eyes, but DOS was in fact fun to use.
If you didn't have GUIs on your computer, you'd have to type in commands instead of just clicking on a fancy icon or completely written out name of program. Can you imagine typing something like winxp.exe every time you wanted to open Windows?
It isn't just seniors who might be struggling, and actually I think that even though a lot of the individual control has been superceded, the GUI has made computing possible for a lot more people. There's just a lot of garbage that's not needed - junk that comes preloaded on a system which has time consuming to remove.
I have a collection of several Smart Computing special interest manuals that provide detailed and understandable instructions on using various operating systems as well as applications. I haven't seen these on the market for years, but I used to get them from Borders which had the best selection of them. There might still be some available from Smart Computing.
Hope this helps.
If I try the instructional Help program I get a college course again from WIN, instead of just click here +here + here.... I have to google the terms used to understand the sentence... the time I waste to correct it's automated actions...!!! shriek !!!... by the time I will have learned this program - it'll be out of date again....do I wish I had XP back,,, ? yesyesyes,,, but of course many of the so-called "improvements" are coming down the pike mainly to " improve " company profits ... ! Results: Seniors are left in the dust ... we can't all be PC +Tech- whizzes, + we are often looked at as stupid !... O.k., vstefans, now I got to google... what's a "batchfile"? and what's a GUI? ....... shriek... aaah, maybe tomorrow........ Could MS not compromise and have the instructional college course for the geeks online, +have a simple, click here, +here +here... instructional section online for someone who is not stupid, but knows a lot more about nursing + sewing, etc. than PCs...!!!???... or maybe it's in there somewhere, + I just have not found it...! In the early 90s I had 2 computing courses while in NSG-school, all else is self-learned since... so, no Seniors are not stupid ! but with decreasing memory - it's harder to memorize new stuff !
My Mom had beautiful handwriting and use to write letters to all her relatives. I did the same thing. Back when I was married in the 1970's-1990's, I use to write once a week to my parents. If they didn't get a letter, they would call to make sure everything was alright.... yes, Mom, everything is ok, otherwise we would have called you. This was back when long distance calls meant something bad had happened.
Mom then learned to use e-mail but any time there was a new and improved changed to the e-mail system, or Dad bought a new computer, it was too complex for her to learn. Then Dad had the task of writing and sending e-mails, but all he felt like writing was about the weather and some flood 500 miles from the house.... oh well.
hey, anyone wanna start a listserv...no really, I'm going to hush up and go to bed now.
What I resent is the all encompassing operating software that takes almost all control away from the user. I feel as if I'm battling with the operating system. But I don't really have the desire to spend time studying it to figure out how to trick it.
DOS was difficult for word processing though; the ability to name files without length constraint was a giant step forward.
I understand from SmartPhone users that the autocorrect function is a real nuisance. It's not intuitive and makes "corrections" that make no sense.
I sure do miss DOS - had a lot of fun with that.
Consumer Cellular has cheap plans if you're an AARP member.
And well said about the choice of being with people vs. reading a manual - especially one that's written by someone who's not a native speaker! I used to buy and assemble furniture kits and could always tell when the instructions weren't prepared by a native English speaker or writer.
One day the doctor across the hall from my office dropped by.... here was my boss at his desk and me at mine both having local map books opened looking for a certain street... my boss was using a magnifying glass. The doctor just stopped and looked and said "why don't you just Google the address".... I told him it's quicker this way, otherwise by the time I turn on the computer wait for the computer to wake up and go to the browser then type in what I want, I have already found the street I was looking for :)
My boss [who is in his late 70's] and I always have a race as to who will find a telephone number first... he will use his SmartPhone, and I will use an old fashioned telephone book... I usually win.
My father was a cartographer in WW II - and loved maps, as do I , trouble is how do you learn to work maps on a cellphone... aaah, maybe tomorrow... In the meantime I travel with the huge Walmart Rand McNally Road Atlas all over the country and Canada... get to all the places I need with it o.k. ! On my last trip to Lexington, KY I tried to buy an updated map of Lexington in 3 different stores, only to be told " we are out and we can't get them anymore " - is that not a shame !!!
If you want to see this video, google:
OpenStreetMap - Project Haiti
It is absolutely amazing to see the public response to requests for data to assist responders.
I guess what I need is a hard working device, not one that's really smart.
I am not too high tech myself i have an old cd player with headphones have no idea about ipods and an crap mobile phone thats only because ive no money to get all this new stuff. My sister (b*tch) was astonished i didnt have ipod? oh youre soooooooooooooooooo not with it. Yep shes the one with thousands in the bank!!
The computer social side and websites like Aging Care has become the back fence when women use to talk to other women across the fence... but now that fence stretches worldwide.
E-mail has been great... I use to like the idea of sending a letter at midnight, but now I don't do that because too many cellphones get emails and ring the recipient. My Dad use to teach DOS language code after he retired but now that code technology has gotten away from him... how he enjoyed looking things up on the computer.... he tries now but his dial-up is like molasses when it comes to speed. He rarely does e-mail anymore.
I know I spend waaaaaay too much time on the computer.... but it's become my TV substitute because there aren't enough really good fun shows.... how I miss Carol Burnett.
On those very rare occasions of eating out, I see families with the children glued to their SmartPhones. Even 3 years old with some type of electronic devices. Hope those children get a chance to play in the dirt like I did, I had a great childhood where one had to use their imagination :)
Crow doesn't taste very good.
I remember holiday gatherings (there used to be some relatively pleasant ones), where when sisters hosted, their sons would disappear to the basement at one of their houses, or the family room at narc sisters house to play computer games on the tv that others would watch the football games, or just plain talk. But the noise of the kids while playing made any type of conversation nearly impossible.
It is almost as if we need another classification for seniors, those of us that are young or motivated enough to learn new technologies. In fact, my Mom was very computer proficient, spreadsheets, even had a website for her business. Then it got to the point she could not remember how to turn the computer on.
I wish that appliances came with simpler displays too, Too many options on many of them.