Experiences with non-techies

[don_svetlio]

3 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

I think we've all seen or at least can imagine the "shortcut graveyard" desktop though

something like this:

 

How people find that more convenient than an organized menu with search I'll never know.  Sure, everything is only one click away, but everything is only one click away, and finding the right link is going to take longer than just hitting the windows key, typing part of the name and hitting enter

If you have a 2TB HDD the search can be quite slow

[vanished]

1 minute ago, don_svetlio said:

If you have a 2TB HDD the search can be quite slow

The only time I've ever noticed the start menu program search being slow was right after a new install.  I've used it since I got 7 ~5 years ago on slow laptop HDDs and SSDs with other large drives in the system (just for storage) and (this is actually odd to me though) it's always bee really fast; like it comes up with results pretty much as quickly as I can type.  (Why I find that odd is that "normal" file searches of the entire machine are actually quite slow still... )

[daniellearmouth]

7 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

I think we've all seen or at least can imagine the "shortcut graveyard" desktop though

something like this:

 

How people find that more convenient than an organized menu with search I'll never know.  Sure, everything is only one click away, but everything is only one click away, and finding the right link is going to take longer than just hitting the windows key, typing part of the name and hitting enter

Oh, I am guilty of this.

[vanished]

3 minutes ago, daniellearmouth said:

Oh, I am guilty of this.

I just noticed something else - look closely at that picture.  It appears as though there are two of everything... my conclusion is that whoever made it literally couldn't fill the desktop up that much if they tried, so they got about half and just duplicated everything 

 

How do you feel now?

[daniellearmouth]

Just now, Ryan_Vickers said:

I just noticed something else - look closely at that picture.  It appears as though there are two of everything... my conclusion is that whoever made it literally couldn't fill the desktop up that much if they tried, so they got about half and just duplicated everything 

 

How do you feel now?

No different, really.

Because either way, it was mostly crap that was on the desktop anyway.

[WkdPaul]

13 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

The only time I've ever noticed the start menu program search being slow was right after a new install.  I've used it since I got 7 ~5 years ago on slow laptop HDDs and SSDs with other large drives in the system (just for storage) and (this is actually odd to me though) it's always bee really fast; like it comes up with results pretty much as quickly as I can type.  (Why I find that odd is that "normal" file searches of the entire machine are actually quite slow still... )

That's because of Windows indexing, it'll keep an index of files and programs so searches will always be faster, if you don't have an index like me, then searches are slow! lol

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indexing_Service

[vanished]

Just now, wkdpaul said:

That's because of Windows indexing, it'll keep an index of files and programs so searches will always be faster, if you don't have an index like me, then searches are slow! lol

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indexing_Service

I know about indexing... it's just that having it or not hasn't always given the results I would expect.  At least on windows...

[EmeraldFlame]

19 minutes ago, daniellearmouth said:

Oh, I am guilty of this.

You sir/madam need Stardock Fences.

[WkdPaul]

44 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

I know about indexing... it's just that having it or not hasn't always given the results I would expect.  At least on windows...

ok yeah I understand, that's why I always turn it off (and also because I have low-end specs PC! lol)

[daniellearmouth]

55 minutes ago, EmeraldFlame said:

You sir/madam need Stardock Fences.

I actually don't have that much on my desktop anymore.

 

And besides, when I did have it, it didn't help any.

All I did with it was troll 4chan desktop threads, with things like an obnoxiously long fence solely for the Recycle Bin.

[cferns1]

8 hours ago, wkdpaul said:

To each his own, though I think we can all agree that a cluttered desktop is very inefficient!

 

When I see people with more than a dozen shortcuts (at work or with family) I try to give them tips, including quick launch, when non-techies learn about that they love it! Funny how there are simple ways to fix things. lol

On my laptop I have at least 20 shortcuts on my desktop, because

A) My steam games are all shortcut-ted on my desktop, and I can't be bothered to go searching through my steam library when its already on my desktop where I can see it layed out,

B) A lot of the programs that I use on a daily basis are on my desktop, and if I am just starting up my computer I don't need to search my computer for them, (they also act as a reminder of what I was going to do before I shut down my computer last),

C) The folders that I use quite often are shortcut-ted there because they are ridiculously deep into my file-system that it just became a pain to try and find all my work

 

But don't get me wrong, these shortcuts ARE NOT disorganised. I totally agree with you on that. It always really annoys me when people have an unnecessarily cluttered desktop, like seriously, how do you find anything in this mess. Like every time I log onto my nan's laptop to fix something she asks me to fix, there is always dozens of files and pictures on there, and things like a program link to something that opens up eBay's webpage. WHY IN GOD'S NAME WOULD YOU NEED TO INSTALL A PROGRAM THAT LAUNCHES THE EBAY WEBPAGE AND DOES NOTHING ELSE???? WHAT IS THE ACTUAL POINT?

 

On a side note, my nan is also convinced that there is a virus on her laptop because it is really slow, even though she has an i3-270m, and 2gb of DDR2 ram, running windows 10. It runs sort of fine now that I have turned off all of windows 10's animations and such but there should be a base line of your computers specs before you are allowed to upgrade (I have no idea if this is a thing or not, my laptop came pre installed with windows 10 and have never upgraded a computer to it)

[DirtyDane]

2 hours ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

I think we've all seen or at least can imagine the "shortcut graveyard" desktop though

something like this:

 

How people find that more convenient than an organized menu with search I'll never know.  Sure, everything is only one click away, but everything is only one click away, and finding the right link is going to take longer than just hitting the windows key, typing part of the name and hitting enter

*AHEM* i will have you know its 2 clicks away. 

[DirtyDane]

i think we need a new story. this icon discussion is wearing on me. anyone else wanna talk about how overpriced starbucks is 

[daniellearmouth]

24 minutes ago, DirtyDane said:

i think we need a new story. this icon discussion is wearing on me. anyone else wanna talk about how overpriced starbucks is 

Hilariously enough, my college has a Starbucks on the ground floor.

It's public, but you get a 30% discount if you're a student.

[DirtyDane]

31 minutes ago, daniellearmouth said:

Hilariously enough, my college has a Starbucks on the ground floor.

It's public, but you get a 30% discount if you're a student.

i dont drink coffee really so i have no use of starbucks but so many people i know waste money there

[daniellearmouth]

Just now, DirtyDane said:

i dont drink coffee really so i have no use of starbucks but so many people i know waste money there

I don't drink coffee either. I get tea from there. It's crazy cheap when the discount's applied.

 

Unpopular opinion: I can't stand coffee.

[DirtyDane]

1 minute ago, daniellearmouth said:

I don't drink coffee either. I get tea from there. It's crazy cheap when the discount's applied.

 

Unpopular opinion: I can't stand coffee.

same and if i ever need something to keep me up usually a swig of a soda of some sort is enough. its the feeling of the carbonated drink in my mouth that does it, no idea why but it just works. hell i pulled a 2 day non stop livestream with friends relying on 1 bottle of diet coke and water

[vanished]

1 hour ago, DirtyDane said:

*AHEM* i will have you know its 2 clicks away. 

not if you change the settings for a single click to launch!  ohhh!

[DirtyDane]

1 hour ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

not if you change the settings for a single click to launch!  ohhh!

how many non techies are going to figure that out. 

[DirtyDane]

Just now, DirtyDane said:

how many non techies are going to figure that out. 

 

1 hour ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

not if you change the settings for a single click to launch!  ohhh!

tell you what. if your so for it then how about this. you get to show each and every person who doesnt know how to do it how to do it one by one on your own

[vanished]

14 minutes ago, DirtyDane said:

 

tell you what. if your so for it then how about this. you get to show each and every person who doesnt know how to do it how to do it one by one on your own

woah where is that coming from?

[WkdPaul]

A friend, knows enough to fix some things but he's also the right amount of "non-techy" (he's the one that thinks GPU powers is limited to VRAM ie: to him GT610 2GB>HD7770 1GB & GT610 2GB==HD7870 2GB)

 

So anyway, he's trying to get these old HP Neoware thin client to work with different Linux distros ... he says he can't make any work except for an old TinyCore. I tried to help him out through SMS and emails with distros suggestions but somehow it didn't seem to work, with his only explanation "they're not working!"

 

... until tonight, I asked him if he could send me exact error messages he's getting (I only learned today he's been getting error messages!!!), so when he sends me the message it read;

 

this kernel requires an x86-64 CPU, but only detects an i686 CPU, unable to boot

 

... *sigh* ... so this WHOLE time (2 weeks now) he was trying to install 64bits linux distributions on 32bits hardware, without even reading the message he was getting !!!!!!!!!!! With all the crap he throws my way tech wise, I sometimes I which I could send him a punch through email.

[DirtyDane]

2 minutes ago, wkdpaul said:

A friend, knows enough to fix some things but he's also the right amount of "non-techy" (he's the one that thinks GPU powers is limited to VRAM ie: to him GT610 2GB>HD7770 1GB & GT610 2GB==HD7870 2GB)

 

So anyway, he's trying to get these old HP Neoware thin client to work with different Linux distros ... he says he can't make any work except for an old TinyCore. I tried to help him out through SMS and emails with distros suggestions but somehow it didn't seem to work, with his only explanation "they're not working!"

 

... until tonight, I asked him if he could send me exact error messages he's getting (I only learned today he's been getting error messages!!!), so when he sends me the message it read;

 

this kernel requires an x86-64 CPU, but only detects an i686 CPU, unable to boot

 

... *sigh* ... so this WHOLE time (2 weeks now) he was trying to install 64bits linux distributions on 32bits hardware, without even reading the message he was getting !!!!!!!!!!! With all the crap he throws my way tech wise, I sometimes I which I could send him a punch through email.

just wait for vr to become main stream you can both play an mmo and the first thing you do is punch him

[Alucard86ers]

On 16/02/2016 at 8:37 AM, Ryan_Vickers said:

But I just don't get it... I mean, surely no one would place a desk lamp on their desk and expect it to work without plugging it in, but swap that out for a computer and suddenly all ability to use logic goes completely out the window. It's like people think they're totally magical and the basic rules of life don't have to apply anymore... *sigh*

 

But then again, I guess there are people like the above 

 

And, since you brought it up, maybe we should revisit the whole "stuff on your desktop affects performance" argument.  We had someone mention that they thought it did, but none of us could prove or have ever experienced a change in system performance when there is a large quantity of data on the desktop.  Could you elaborate on that a little more actually? 

From my experience (mostly windows and Mac) the more on the desktop (that being large in file size or large in number of files) reduces the performance of the OS itself. From what I understand the items on the desktop tend to be the most active and ready to be used. The more items on the desktop tend to put a strain on the OS to keep those files active. 

In windows 7 (what i mostly support now) depending on the HW config I have seen a Pc that would take 10 min to log in and open up the normal startup apps (lync; Symantec etc.) to logging in about 3 min after the clean up. 
On the Mac OS (10.7.x when i last used it properly) it can be the same as windows. From memory i had one user accidentally drop over 10,000 files on the desktop and watch it grind to a halt as it tried to process everything. I had to get them to login as Root and move the files from the desktop in there user to a folder on the OS drive before they could log in again. 

I have never made the mistake on Linux (nor do i plan to test this) so i don't know but i have a feeling that it would behave similar to the mac os, this is depending if the desktop is actively set to show folders as well.  

[Bhav]

What about some English fails, somewhat related to video games.

 

Back when I first started playing Civ II at age 14, I learned a lot of nice new big words like pacifist, cordial, hostile, vendetta etc.

 

So in one English class, we had a bit of a Q&A round on Romeo and Juliet. In one of my answers I used the word hostile instead of angry. After the Q&A, the marking was done by the person sat next to you with answers read out.

 

The pleb that was checking my answers had no idea what hostile meant and had to ask the teacher, who confirmed it was correct. I felt intelligent.