Kids Can’t Use Computers
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Kids Can’t Use Computers
1–10 of 23 posts
Re: Kids Can’t Use Computers
#2I used to make myself annoyed when hearing "the internet isn't working" as well, but I've thankfully realized that that's a stupid response. Obviously they don't mean the entire internet, they mean "the internet connection".
People shorten phrases to make things easier to say, don't be a pedantic jerk about it for no reason when you obviously know what they meant.
Re: Kids Can’t Use Computers
#3I noticed this as well during my time as a teacher. I'd occasionally bring my kids (ages 15-18) to the lab to research things, and I'd have to handhold them through stuff as basic as Googling; a lot of them thought they had to download Chrome before they could begin searching, thanks to the "switch to Chrome" ads on the front page. The war on general purpose computing has basically been won already. I expect demographic trends (aided by a bit of glow in the dark fuckery) to make owning a PC unfeasible within a generation or so.
Anecdotally, I'd place the high water mark of public computing knowledge around 2009. Even frat bros were installing Linux and torrenting stuff off of private trackers back then.
Re: Kids Can’t Use Computers
#4I used to make myself annoyed when hearing "the internet isn't working" as well, but I've thankfully realized that that's a stupid response. Obviously they don't mean the entire internet, they mean "the internet connection". People shorten phrases to make things easier to say, don't be a pedantic jerk about it for no reason when you obviously know what they meant.
How far can you tolerate on the current linguistic situation in Japan?
USB means USB storage.
Giga means monthly transfer quota: usage "I don't have enough giga this month", "it decrease(waste) my giga"
And the latest, worst of all...
Wi-Fi means ISP.
Re: Kids Can’t Use Computers
#5This article has been on the front page how many times now?
Well, it is still relevant.
What's more interesting is how to fix this. I've no idea, but I'd like to read articles about how to do it.
Re: Kids Can’t Use Computers
#6I work as tech support at a technical university.
One student emailed in to us and complained that one of our website links didn't work, which the student had received in some documentation from the teacher.
I asked the student to send in the docs to us so I could check it out, it turned out to be a project where the student had to install lamp on a windows machine and the browse to the localhost, which didn't work for the student because the student had not followed the instructions in the documentation.
Re: Kids Can’t Use Computers
#7I used to make myself annoyed when hearing "the internet isn't working" as well, but I've thankfully realized that that's a stupid response. Obviously they don't mean the entire internet, they mean "the internet connection". People shorten phrases to make things easier to say, don't be a pedantic jerk about it for no reason when you obviously know what they meant.
How far can you tolerate on the current linguistic situation in Japan? USB means USB storage. Giga means monthly transfer quota: usage "I don't have enough giga this month", "it decrease(waste) my giga" And the latest, worst of all... Wi-Fi means ISP.
Wow, those are awful. I tend to take a porn approach for things like this in that you know it when you see it. If it's unambiguous I think it's fine, in the case of internet connection, but I can see all of those as being confusing (except maybe "giga" in context like that, but regardless that one is just too much and I hate it).
Obviously, what's "obvious" is completely dependent on context, background, and environment, so it's a pretty poor place to draw a line, but I'm still sticking to it and relying on humans to make appropriate judgment.
Edit: Actually, I've rethought the "giga" one and don't really think it's too bad if context is clear. In the states people say "gigs" similarly to mean both data transfer and storage in different contexts and it's usually clear. "Giga" only sounds strange to me because I'm not used to that word, but it's effectively the same, just a shortening of a phrase.
I suppose "USB" is just a shortening as well, but without extreme context it's just too unclear because it refers to the bus, or more commonly the connector. If they're holding the drive in their hand and gesturing that's probably fine, but otherwise "drive" or "storage" is needed.
Wi-fi is just blatantly wrong though.
Re: Kids Can’t Use Computers
#8As someone who grew up with computers (and has owned many over the last 36 years), the key is ownership.
Right from my first computer I had free reign to do what I wanted with it. When my 1541 disk drive stopped ejecting disks I pulled it apart and fixed it myself. If I did something dumb and blew the fuse in the power supply, then it was something else I needed to fix.
The second thing which I think is tied to ownership is not being fearful of trying something. It may be that beginning your computing experience on the command line gives you confidence, but I see so many people hesitate about clicking on obvious things like it's going to blow up the computer if they get it wrong. Yes, there are times for care, like whether or not to click on a link in an email - but even here's there's a weird inverse where they're fearful of the consequences of not clicking on it!
Re: Kids Can’t Use Computers
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
How far can you tolerate on the current linguistic situation in Japan? USB means USB storage. Giga means monthly transfer quota: usage "I don't have enough giga this month", "it decrease(waste) my giga" And the latest, worst of all... Wi-Fi means ISP.
Wow, those are awful. I tend to take a porn approach for things like this in that you know it when you see it. If it's unambiguous I think it's fine, in the case of internet connection, but I can see all of those as being confusing (except maybe "giga" in context like that, but regardless that one is just too much and I hate it). Obviously, what's "obvious" is completely dependent on context, background, and environm…
I just showed a bunch of prospects around a rental house. Every single one asked how is the WiFi speeds. Not a single one asked about broadband speeds to the telephone exchange. Taking them literally just confused things more.
Re: Kids Can’t Use Computers
#10(2013)