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11% of Americans don’t use the internet

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Re: 11% of Americans don’t use the internet

#271

Post by SlowRobotAhead »

scarface74 wrote: post #19
SlowRobotAhead wrote: post #3

I kinda wish we could pump those numbers up, esp for children on the internet. Thinking back to the 80s and 90s growing up, it sure seems like people were happier. But what do I know!?

My son has been able to keep in touch with friends and play video games with them online that he hasn’t seen in person in years. They live in the same metro area but being an hour and half away in traffic they might as well be in different parts of the country.

Do you consider those to be just as meaningful relationships with the people he would otherwise have to meet in going out with in person?

Keeping in touch with people is great, but I think there is value in children learning the lesson that the people you hang out with today might not be your forever friends. To lesson most people don’t learn to well after high school would’ve been beneficial to know earlier.

Just posing the question. I don’t know your kid. Nor our specific kids but I was talking about my post. Of course her benefits and features, at the cost of possibly losing the ability to deal with people in the real world. Maybe.

Re: 11% of Americans don’t use the internet

#272

Post by ConceptJunkie »

Bromskloss wrote: post #247
jonny_eh wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Does the US IRS have an auto-fill feature for tax software? No. See: https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2017/03/22/521132960/epis...

I used to think making it more automatic was a clearly good idea _until_ I listened to that episode and was introduced to the counter-argument that people should well know what taxes they pay, to make it harder to sneak things in there or make the existing things swell without scrutiny.

This is why there's automatic withholding of income tax from your paycheck. If you never see it, you're less likely to miss it. The whole system is designed to try to keep you from realizing how much you pay.

Re: 11% of Americans don’t use the internet

#273

Post by ksec »

And nearly 55% of Chinese don't use Internet.

Yes, that is nearly 800M still without Smartphone or Internet. There is going to be a very long tail, likely 10 years plus to bring the last 500 to 600M online. The rest are likely not going to be online in their life time or has no interest in doing so.

Out of the 7.4 Billion people on earth, there is 5B Mobile Phone users, 3.5 Smartphone users. So it will likely take another twenty years before we reach 6 Billion Smartphone users.

Re: 11% of Americans don’t use the internet

#274

Post by pennaMan »

dev_north_east wrote: post #227
reaperducer wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know very smart 60yo+ doctors with a lifetime of scientific achievements, who understands concepts way more complicated than the IP protocol or a browser, and who just refuse to learn it. I know a woman who until recently worked as a secretary to one of the presidents of a large regional bank. The first thing she did each morning was to print out the president's e-mails, and bring them to him on paper. He would the…

> - She dressed the part; coming to work in a proper business suit and briefcase each day, not carrying a backpack like a sixth-grader. This is something I've been thinking more and more about lately. I used to be happy with the lax attitude most tech places have to attire but honestly I look around my office now and I wish we had a bit more of a dress standard. I was a tshirt and hoodie fiend but changed to slacks/s…

>but honestly what would you actually think of him

I would hire him as my full time lawyer in a heartbeat, but that's just me.

Re: 11% of Americans don’t use the internet

#275

Post by scarface74 »

SlowRobotAhead wrote: post #271
scarface74 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My son has been able to keep in touch with friends and play video games with them online that he hasn’t seen in person in years. They live in the same metro area but being an hour and half away in traffic they might as well be in different parts of the country.

Do you consider those to be just as meaningful relationships with the people he would otherwise have to meet in going out with in person? Keeping in touch with people is great, but I think there is value in children learning the lesson that the people you hang out with today might not be your forever friends. To lesson most people don’t learn to well after high school would’ve been beneficial to know earlier. Just po…

The male friends that I grew away from wasn’t because of distance, it was because our interest and lifestyle changed but I’ve actively kept in touch with a few even while we have lived in different parts of the country since 1997. We see each other maybe once a year since we are both from the same hometown and go back to visit relatives.

What benefit do you get from seeing people in person? When I see my friends in person we talk, play cards, and play video games. We may go out and eat/drink but everything else we can do online. I don’t need to physically see other men to keep a friendship with them.

I did specifically call out my male friends. I purposefully distanced myself from my (platanic) female friends after getting married except for the ones where I was friends with the couple because having friends of the opposite sex as a married man just brings in too many complications.

Re: 11% of Americans don’t use the internet

#276

Post by SlowRobotAhead »

scarface74 wrote: post #275
SlowRobotAhead wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you consider those to be just as meaningful relationships with the people he would otherwise have to meet in going out with in person? Keeping in touch with people is great, but I think there is value in children learning the lesson that the people you hang out with today might not be your forever friends. To lesson most people don’t learn to well after high school would’ve been beneficial to know earlier. Just po…

The male friends that I grew away from wasn’t because of distance, it was because our interest and lifestyle changed but I’ve actively kept in touch with a few even while we have lived in different parts of the country since 1997. We see each other maybe once a year since we are both from the same hometown and go back to visit relatives. What benefit do you get from seeing people in person? When I see my friends in p…

>What benefit do you get from seeing people in person?

Yea, IDK, social ques maybe? Are you really arguing that there is no difference talking to friends in person vs on the internet or phone?

The short version is, your digital friends, aren't real people. You can hang up on them, or not answer when you don't feel like. The second you put your controller or phone down, they disappear and wait to be pulled back into your existence. Real people you can't manage like that, so you have to use different methods of interaction.

Re: 11% of Americans don’t use the internet

#278

Post by mikec3010 »

mmirate wrote: post #156
mikec3010 wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hypothetically, if you needed python couldn't you either compile it to binary or just install the runtime ? I don't see how a language would be coupled to the version of Linux.

Doing so means putting all Python packages into a single opaque OS-level package. Not fun when your build system and related infrastructure, were all designed to work with OS-level packages.

Can't you just set PYTHON_PATH="where yoy put python" ?

> all Python packages

That's a weakness in the language. You trade such a simple syntax for dependency hell. Oh, you wanted XML-derp-3.5.2.9.6? Well that requires XML-slurp-2.6.5.9.77 and you only have '75, sorry bud, can't possibly work. Oh but if you upgrade XML-slurp that breaks pycairo-2.7.55-1 and all your GUI code will stop working. Fun stuff.

Re: 11% of Americans don’t use the internet

#279

Post by scarface74 »

SlowRobotAhead wrote: post #276
scarface74 wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The male friends that I grew away from wasn’t because of distance, it was because our interest and lifestyle changed but I’ve actively kept in touch with a few even while we have lived in different parts of the country since 1997. We see each other maybe once a year since we are both from the same hometown and go back to visit relatives. What benefit do you get from seeing people in person? When I see my friends in p…

>What benefit do you get from seeing people in person? Yea, IDK, social ques maybe? Are you really arguing that there is no difference talking to friends in person vs on the internet or phone? The short version is, your digital friends, aren't real people. You can hang up on them, or not answer when you don't feel like. The second you put your controller or phone down, they disappear and wait to be pulled back into y…

Yes I’m arguing exactly that. One of my best friends I’ve had since 1992 I talk to all of the time to the point when we do see each other in person we really don’t have anything new to talk about.

I don’t have any friends that I don’t want to talk too to the point I would hang up on them. The friends I talk to in person - I can just as easily not hang out with them if I don’t feel like seeing them either.

I have a group of five friends that I use to work with and we’ve all gone our separate ways as far as jobs, we mostly talk on Slack but we do go out of our way to meet for lunch at least once s month. Honestly, at this point in my life, it takes an effort to keep friends because I know I should. I’d much rather spend my limited free time with my wife or working out in my home gym.

Re: 11% of Americans don’t use the internet

#280

Post by Bromskloss »

reaperducer wrote: post #269
Bromskloss wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For what tasks do you intend to use the computer?

Everything that computers were used for before the internet?

Yeah, what was that, really? Typing QBASIC programs from paper into the computer? Using it as a fancy typewriter? Calculating ballistic trajectories? That's all I can remember.
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