Experiences with non-techies

[jayctech]

Interesting. There is still a significant portion of the population that can't do this, and yet they are employed. Do we know when the Professor's employment began, what if it was 10 years ago? So you would rather an institution go with a less qualified PhD professor, so long as they know how to connect to wifi?

I agree if they are hiring new PhD lecturers then it would be odd that they couldn't connect to a wifi network, but if they have the skills for the position, then maybe getting them to learn some of these computing basics is a better solution.

Yes because as far as I'm concerned he isn't more qualified than someone that can connect to wifi, of course, not specifically because of such a trivial reason.

 

Science is a constantly evolving subject, likewise the way we learn and teach must constantly evolve too. Computers are now standard equipment for all scientists for various reasons and fundamental tasks that are uniform across all platforms and occupations (e.g. connect to wifi) should not, in 2015, be a new experience and if someone can't perform such tasks then they frankly do not know how to use their equipment properly (and safely). As a result, as a student I cannot have faith in the teachings of such a professor who is incapable of evolving as his subject does.

 

TL;DR version: there are greater implications than just "he doesn't know how to use a computer"

[mxas6530]

My mum feels the need to turn off my wireless network at night because she fears "The waves will affect her brain."...apparently only when she's sleeping too

I still do that. Why? Because apparently it saves energy or some bull. And it's not grown on us (my family that if) so it's OK... I guess.

[Ertman]

Yes because as far as I'm concerned he isn't more qualified than someone that can connect to wifi, of course, not specifically because of such a trivial reason.

Science is a constantly evolving subject, likewise the way we learn and teach must constantly evolve too. Computers are now standard equipment for all scientists for various reasons and fundamental tasks that are uniform across all platforms and occupations (e.g. connect to wifi) should not, in 2015, be a new experience and if someone can't perform such tasks then they frankly do not know how to use their equipment properly (and safely). As a result, as a student I cannot have faith in the teachings of such a professor who is incapable of evolving as his subject does.

TL;DR version: there are greater implications than just "he doesn't know how to use a computer"

Nice TL;DR add.

I get that, but it ignores the fact that setting up wifi is not a fundamental part of a physics professor's job or for that matter getting a PhD. Their lack of ability to know that they need to setup a wifi connection does not equate to their lack of ability to use computers in their research, or whether they are an effective communicator of information as a professor. If the professor was giving me computing advice, I'd see your point, but they would be providing me with the knowledge and hopefully understanding of physics. Would/should a persons ability to use computers affect their employability, absolutely. That doesn't mean that the circumstances and specifics of their capability shouldn't play a factor.

TL;DR version: being able to connect to wifi is not indicative of their value in their profession.

I think we should let this go at this point, as it's becoming a circular argument.

[Deadrewski]

Valid-ish point. I don't know if it is their job is to setup network access or troubleshoot IT problems, I thought their PhDs, and presumedly their jobs revolved around physics, not IT or basic computer use. I am just saying that equating PhDs in physics to having knowledge about the working of computers is not directly related. I don't think its necessarily fair for us to be projecting our knowledge on other people and calling them stupid for not knowing something. A person with a PhD knows a lot more than you about something, and by extension it would be silly for you not to know it too. This does not excuse stupid behaviour by any means.

 

Yes they should have knowledge of them, but their PhDs in physics do not equate understanding of day to day computer use. The level of education does not indicate the knowledge or capability of a person in an unrelated field. This does not excuse stupid behaviour though. At least the physics professor new where to turn for help with a particular problem.

 

No its not. Thats not even remotely comparable.

Okay, if actual troubleshooting was involved, I would agree. But all I literally had to do was click the wireless button, click the guest network, and I was able to solve the problem in 30 seconds. He was ready to throw away a full hour meeting (which he usually only attends every 6 months with this committee) because the internet wouldn't work. I'm not saying he's incompetent, I'm saying I was left shocked that he, as a physicist (we like to tinker and solve problems), would still be unable to deal with the problem after so many years of having the same system in our department. He's a pretty nice guy and a decent physics mentor as well, so I'm not trying to say he's awful, just that it's definitely a moment when I had to separate physicists from being a full subset of techies.

[Sauron]

Yeah, good luck with that You may have a 4k console (in twenty years), but good luck playing on that old cathode ray 72" TV from the early 90s.

 

72" crt? do you have any idea how huge that would be?

[MblaZe7run]

72" crt? do you have any idea how huge that would be?

Yeah, I used to have one in our living room (might not have been CRT, but when we took it apart, it sure as hell looked like one..)   4:3 aspect ratio baby. I'm pretty sure ours was Hitachi.

[Deadrewski]

Interesting. There is still a significant portion of the population that can't do this, and yet they are employed. Do we know when the Professor's employment began, what if it was 10 years ago? So you would rather an institution go with a less qualified PhD professor, so long as they know how to connect to wifi?

I agree if they are hiring new PhD lecturers then it would be odd that they couldn't connect to a wifi network, but if they have the skills for the position, then maybe getting them to learn some of these computing basics is a better solution.

That's totally fair. He's been around 30+ years...

[Sauron]

Yeah, I used to have one in our living room (might not have been CRT, but when we took it apart, it sure as hell looked like one..)   4:3 aspect ratio baby. I'm pretty sure ours was Hitachi.

 

I need pics to believe it  :blink: a 72" diagonal on a crt would mean at LEAST 1.2 m in depth...

[BlazingGunnerFTW]

My grandma is loyal to AT&T and grandpa worked at AT&T for 30 years, but that was like so long ago. I told her about how much money you will save with Ting, as she canceled her fliphone plans. She wants to get a smartphone, and I told her since you dont text, you could spend like 15 dollars a month. So thats 10 dollars off her max budget, but she will be with AT&T, despite the fact that you will spend about 15-20 dollars more even if you get a discount.

[CalumGiff]

Well i was talking to a guy in school who is strangely enough studying to be an IT engineer and he tells me he overclocked the i7 in his macbook pro which would be impossible anyway due to how lockled down those bioses are, to 8 ghz

[MblaZe7run]

I need pics to believe it  :blink: a 72" diagonal on a crt would mean at LEAST 1.2 m in depth...

 

Pics cannot happen sadly. The TV was taken apart by my father and I before I left for college, and I'm now at college, 5 hours from that residence. I'll see if I can find a picture of when we still had it in the family room Found a picture from back in 2011, with mega awkward me and my very first motherboard on Christmas morning. (and it was about 3-3.5 ft deep. Could have been a 60" and not 72, that is starting to sound closer to reality.)

 

[Fgtfv567]

Well i was talking to a guy in school who is strangely enough studying to be an IT engineer and he tells me he overclocked the i7 in his macbook pro which would be impossible anyway due to how lockled down those bioses are, to 8 ghz

Overclocked Macbook Pro?! HA! THAT'S A FUNNY JOKE!

[Ceatra]

Well i was talking to a guy in school who is strangely enough studying to be an IT engineer and he tells me he overclocked the i7 in his macbook pro which would be impossible anyway due to how lockled down those bioses are, to 8 ghz

Maybe he made the total clock speed and multiplied it by the number of cores (which should be 4) so it means that the i7 was at 2Ghz. 2 x 4 = 8... done  <_<

 

EDIT: So my pentium B980 is running at whopping 4,8Ghz (it's a dual core)

[CalumGiff]

Maybe he made the total clock speed and multiplied it by the number of cores (which should be 4) so it means that the i7 was at 2Ghz. 2 x 4 = 8... done  <_<

 

EDIT: So my pentium B980 is running at whopping 4,8Ghz (it's a dual core)

Yup hes tarded like severely,

[Ceatra]

Yup hes tarded like severely,

Now do that with a 12 cored Xeon...

[MatazaNZ]

Look, this has been discussed many times in this thread and I'm not sure that this guy is wild about you quoting his post from 2 years ago.

Exactly what is was talking about earlier with no quoting posts older than around 2 weeks

[Boink]

Well i was talking to a guy in school who is strangely enough studying to be an IT engineer and he tells me he overclocked the i7 in his macbook pro which would be impossible anyway due to how locked down those bioses are, to 8 ghz

I managed to overclock a 27 inch iMac GPU by 200 MHz after installing Windows and MSI Afterburner with no problems. But overclocking the CPU on any mac? Not a chance even if the BIOS wasn't locked down since all but the 5K iMac use processors with locked core ratios. Not to mention Apple designs their computers to just barely squeeze by thermally. I know people who have gotten burned by the outside of their laptops.

[BlazingGunnerFTW]

Now do that with a 12 cored Xeon...

You could overvolt the xeon though.

[Vivilacqua1]

Well i was talking to a guy in school who is strangely enough studying to be an IT engineer and he tells me he overclocked the i7 in his macbook pro which would be impossible anyway due to how lockled down those bioses are, to 8 ghz

Were his legs melted?

[Wooth]

My grandma is loyal to AT&T and grandpa worked at AT&T for 30 years, but that was like so long ago. I told her about how much money you will save with Ting, as she canceled her fliphone plans. She wants to get a smartphone, and I told her since you dont text, you could spend like 15 dollars a month. So thats 10 dollars off her max budget, but she will be with AT&T, despite the fact that you will spend about 15-20 dollars more even if you get a discount.

Old people what are you gonna do. Brand loyalty is a huge thing and it doesn't just span retail products. Hopefully AT&T is your only problem. Elderly people can be loyal to the point it could kill them

My mother has an elderly friend who continues to go to the worst doctor in town. The doctor is so bad in fact that they aren't allowed to legally prescribe anymore and has to get other doctors in her practice to write prescriptions for her. Because these doctors aren't looking at full patient med lists she prescribed a med combination that could of had very bad consequences. She was lucky the pharmacist was good and caught on. She still goes to the doctor that could have killed her. Who knew national medication record databases can save you from your doctor from killing you accidentally.

[interneteducated]

I've had way too many instances that if i try to remember one im going to end up in a deep depressive rage and end up spammin facebook with "I wish guns were legal" so instead ill post with how i treat such cases

Don't waste time giving advice to people who you know wont take it.

Only give so much advice for as long as the person is willing to learn.

Be nice to those who respect you and give them a reason to keep respecting you.

If someone turns around later proclaiming you know nothing and treats you like s***, if your not smiling when you get your revenge you're not getting the right revenge.

Make sure you actually know what you're about to say, you don't want to be the aforementioned guy who thinks he knows it all that we all hate because he doesnt know what hes talking about...

Ignorance is bliss, you can always spot someone who is ignorant when they're "in love" with something you know is overpriced or rubbish (here's looking at you apple, noctua and gaming laptops).

Try to find the most simple and easiest solution you can, when you can, IF doing the easier solution is okay to do so (not a bodge job).

Building someone a good pc isn't worth doing if they have bad habits and thier stuff is full of rubbish and dont do any form of file management and their old pc is full of millions of lolcats pictures, duplicated files, corrupted files that they never sort out, it'll only end up being slow or dying and you'll get the blame.

Read what the user is like, you might think rip off the rich people and help the poor but its not that simple.

If they're VERY poor they probably do weed, have a low work ethic dont maintain things well so they will treat their pc the same

If they're poor for other reasons (just lost his job) sure help them out!

If they're the average joe, treat them with respect, always be willing to help (bearing in mind what ive said before) and try and get rid of the bad name us tech guru's, mechanics etc have as "rip off merchants".

If they're wealthy don't take the p**s, you could rip them off once but if you give someone a good service they will come back for more.

Keep the faith, remember its YOUR love and YOUR hobby, unless its actually your job (in which case you're getting paid so you cant complain), take time out when you have to prevent stressing out, you should never hate the things you love doing...

B)

hello the people going through reading every post [salute]

[salute back]

 

this is going to take a while

[jayctech]

Nice TL;DR add.

I get that, but it ignores the fact that setting up wifi is not a fundamental part of a physics professor's job or for that matter getting a PhD. Their lack of ability to know that they need to setup a wifi connection does not equate to their lack of ability to use computers in their research, or whether they are an effective communicator of information as a professor. If the professor was giving me computing advice, I'd see your point, but they would be providing me with the knowledge and hopefully understanding of physics. Would/should a persons ability to use computers affect their employability, absolutely. That doesn't mean that the circumstances and specifics of their capability shouldn't play a factor.

TL;DR version: being able to connect to wifi is not indicative of their value in their profession.

I think we should let this go at this point, as it's becoming a circular argument.

Agree to disagree? Sounds good.

[RedSphyxis]

Bwuahahahahhahahahahahahahaha  :lol:  This made my day hopefully yours too. Ciao

[soup]

That does not look like  72" or 60",  I doubt a CRT was produced at 60" (in the 90s Sony made one that took four men to carry and it was only 42").  Do you realize 60" is five feet?

 

 

From :-http://www.ehow.co.uk/list_6910444_biggest-crt-televisions.html

 

"Commercial Models

According to hdtvsolutions.com, the largest commercially available model CRT TV is about 45 inches and weighs several hundred pounds. As the size of the screen increases, the so does the size of the picture tube, making the TV much bulkier. Larger TVs are not marketable. The depth, weight and cost made them difficult to sell. A 50-inch TV would require a 38-inch picture tube and even larger casing, making it near impossible for the TV to fit inside a standard door. Larger TVs would also weigh that much more. "

[The Core 2 Quad Runner]

My Uncle told me I should use Linux because it has Firefox!

You should use Linux either way...

Best Distro: Oh wait, you can choose!