An Unseen Disparity

[froglet]

Where I come from (another community, not Canada), the ones who refuse to learn and bitch at US for it, we call them starfish.

Starfish - A creature with five appendages and no brain, also known as a (l)user. Note that starfishes have no anus, their mouth is used for both eating and excreting.

I think its mostly getting set in one way of doing things, and getting comfortable, when you try to introduce something different, you break their fantasy and they realize the world is bigger than their little circle and they get defencive, and as everyone knows, the best defence is a good offence.

[powerboy]

I voted for other.

The reason being is that - some people will learn faster and other will learn slower. It might take someone a few times until they know it by heart, while it could have taken you the first try. It just depends on the person.

[Naaman]

From my point of view I think working with computers takes a certain mindset.

Many intelligent people, through their specialisation, have developed a different mindset.

Sometimes they can broaden their mindset and sometimes they can't.

Of the one's who can't some get fearful, "This is something I should be able to do but I can't. Therefore it's the devices\tutors fault! *harrumph*"

Personally I can't take a saw and cut a straight line through wood, most people are good at something - accept that not all people will be good with computers.

And for the record, from Broomjockeys' rather nice list,

Those who know something, but think they know everything.

are probably the worst people to deal with IMO

[Ringtail Z28]

Those who know nothing, and know it, and are "happy" that way(don't want to learn).

This describes the majority of the people I deal with. They always know that there is someone (me) that can fix all the problems that come up.

Where I come from (another community, not Canada), the ones who refuse to learn and bitch at US for it, we call them starfish.

Starfish - A creature with five appendages and no brain, also known as a (l)user. Note that starfishes have no anus, their mouth is used for both eating and excreting.

That's what I think most people are.

[Depot Denizen]

My father, before he died, was getting used to computers. I had taught him quite a bit, but he was quite content with checking email, looking up guns on the Net, and YouTube now and then.

Mom's gotten a lot better, too. I used to have little patience with her, but I started calming down and she started understanding a bit more. Now she does her geneology projects and writes, and checks email and loads pictures. She's pretty self-sufficient.

I do phone support for a big Vermont college, and sell computers in the same place. There are some folks who have are extremely skilled in what they do (especially the doctors and the former gov'ner that resides here) but who are almost helpless when their computer throws them a strange message.

We get people who come in and just simply need help. I love them. They want to know something, and so we teach them and we may never see them again. At the other end are the hypochondriacs who think they have a problem, but are just plain dumb. We have one client who comes in routinely with his therapy dog to get assistance, often with impossible problems. The stuff he wants to do simply cannot be done, and he doesn't understand it.

[HawaiianShirts]

The stuff he wants to do simply cannot be done, and he doesn't understand it.

Like the people who want to print movies?

I'd heard the stories, but I wasn't sure I believed them until just the other day at work. I overheard a customer ask a co-worker how to download a YouTube video to her computer so she could use it in a presentation for some class where she would not have internet access. Co-worker looked baffled, so I stepped in, saying that YouTube doesn't post videos in a downloadable format. I told her I'd heard of some software that she could buy and download online that would do it, but I was uncertain about this option because I'd never looked into it personally.

Then she asked: Well, could I just print the video and put it in with my hand-outs?

For a moment, she seemed genuinely confused when I told her that was not possible to print a moving image. Fortunately, though, she reasoned it out, saying, "Oh. I guess I can't really print sound, can I?"

[Bootlegger]

Like the people who want to print movies?

I'd heard the stories, but I wasn't sure I believed them until just the other day at work. I overheard a customer ask a co-worker how to download a YouTube video to her computer so she could use it in a presentation for some class where she would not have internet access.

I don't know about Opera, Safari or IE but Firefox has a couple of plugins that will allow you to download videos from YouTube and some can have it converted to your favorite flavor of video/audio codec before you d/l it.

[wagegoth]

It's wrong to beat someone with a keyboard, isn't it?

It's illegal. That doesn't mean it's morally wrong.