Experiences with non-techies

[vanished]

Just now, thekeemo said:

They stole it from xerox which did not commercialize it

same thing with the mouse

and (we've been over this already ) xerox was not first either.  It started in the 60s

[thekeemo]

Just now, Ryan_Vickers said:

and (we've been over this already ) xerox was not first either.  It started in the 60s

Really?

Was it actually used or was it a concept?

[vanished]

Just now, thekeemo said:

Really?

Was it actually used or was it a concept?

You can learn more about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NLS_(computer_system)

I don't think it was widespread but it was a real usable thing

[thekeemo]

1 minute ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

You can learn more about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NLS_(computer_system)

I don't think it was widespread but it was a real usable thing

This is the 60s computers were (ahem) "big"

but thanks for letting me know about this

[vanished]

Just now, thekeemo said:

This is the 60s computers were (ahem) "big"

but thanks for letting me know about this

yeah they were

But it was a user interface, and it was graphical, and perhaps the most familiar element was the concept of a mouse so really it's all there... just, really old school  

[straight_stewie]

I've got two that happened recently:

My grandmother tried to tell me that her constant wifi usage (she figured out Facebook works on her phone recently) doesn't affect the home network because "it's wifi, not internet".
I had a friend ask me why computers at stores show two different amounts of memory on them. A few drinks later and I was explaining that RAM is like a scratchpad that the computer uses automatically and that a harddrive/SSD is like a filing cabinet.

 

 

[Bhav]

I prefer that the ram is a train, and the HDD the carriages. 

[straight_stewie]

Just now, Bhav said:

I prefer that the ram is a train, and the HDD the carriages. 

Can you explain that? It doesn't make sense to me.

[Bhav]

Im not sure myself, thats what I remember being told as a child.

 

50 minutes ago, straight_stewie said:

Can you explain that? It doesn't make sense to me.

 

[XDroidie626]

On 31/01/2016 at 3:26 PM, BURNINGJUNK said:

I just started taking Intro To Information Technology this semester (Freshman year highschool) and the teacher is an idiot. He says that the CPU is the tower part of the computer. He says that Steve Jobs invented the GUI. And when you try to correct him you are wrong. There was this one time he told us there are 1000MB in a GB. I said well its not exactly 1000 right. And he replied well its more like 900. SCREW YOU!!!!!!!!!! That is all. End Rant.

Steve Jobs didn't personally create anything really, he was a visionary, Woz I believe actually build and designed the first Mac.

CPU is the tower part, if its inside but no its a component, not the actual case.

 

I have had teachers like this in the past, let them ramble on, but research on your own terms, you dont need to cut your teacher down just makes you look like an arse if so, but quietly build your knowledge

[vanished]

This isn't so much an experience, but a funny observation.

 

You know those little "share" boxes on most websites that have a button for all the major social media platforms, like facebook, twitter, etc.?  Well, have you ever noticed that there are often more (sometimes much more) Google+ "1+"s than there are Facebook "likes" on "techie" articles, like How-To Geek, or scientific news articles, despite facebook outweighing Google+ in pretty much every other way (by a substantial amount)?  Because I have noticed this from time to time and I find it extremely interesting 

[Bhav]

Google plus is the plague, the only such website that takes your online activity from other Google services and posts it all for everyone to see.

 

I got mad when all my foul mouth YouTube rants were suddenly all over a profile of me that I never wanted in the first place.

[MasonTheEpic]

Almost everyday when I walk into school wearing my Pebble Time a kid stops me and starts to tap the screen on my watch. They always say "Why isn't your Apple Watch working?" and I always laugh a little (but cry on the inside) and say "Its not a Apple Watch, its a Pebble Time. It has buttons." They say "Oh... That's stupid, whats the point?"

[Flowey]

17 hours ago, straight_stewie said:

I've got two that happened recently:

My grandmother tried to tell me that her constant wifi usage (she figured out Facebook works on her phone recently) doesn't affect the home network because "it's wifi, not internet".
I had a friend ask me why computers at stores show two different amounts of memory on them. A few drinks later and I was explaining that RAM is like a scratchpad that the computer uses automatically and that a harddrive/SSD is like a filing cabinet.

 

 

That analogy is quite nice actually.

The one with the RAM as the train do, hummm, wtf did you smoke?

[Dash Lambda]

There was a kid at school bragging about his new Macbook, and he said it had an i7. I asked which CPU, and he said again that it was an i7. I told him that was pretty vague and asked if he could give me the exact CPU. He then turned it on, went through a couple menus, leaned close to the screen, and read off "Intel Iris 5200 Pro Radeon R9M X370 2GB GDDR5", in that order, without pause. I told him that was all graphics, and asked again if he could find the CPU model number. He said i7.

[Dash Lambda]

On 1/31/2016 at 10:26 AM, BURNINGJUNK said:

I just started taking Intro To Information Technology this semester (Freshman year highschool) and the teacher is an idiot. He says that the CPU is the tower part of the computer. He says that Steve Jobs invented the GUI. And when you try to correct him you are wrong. There was this one time he told us there are 1000MB in a GB. I said well its not exactly 1000 right. And he replied well its more like 900. SCREW YOU!!!!!!!!!! That is all. End Rant.

I thought my computer science teacher was the only one that called the entire damned thing the CPU.

 

The kid next to me told her that the computer wasn't working (The screen wouldn't show output). She looked at it, turned it on and off a couple times, then unplugged the tower entirely and swapped it with one that was working. She then proclaimed "I fixed it! And all I had to do was replace the CPU!"

Swapping out the tower is a legitimate fix for that situation, not as efficient as simply moving the kid, but hey. Saying that you replaced the CPU? That's like totaling your car save for the wheels, buying an entirely new car, putting your old wheels on that new car, and saying that you fixed it by replacing the engine.

[straight_stewie]

Just now, Flowey said:

That analogy is quite nice actually.

Thanks! I like to come up with ways to easily explain how things work to people who are interested but don't want to get to technical.

[matrix07012]

Most comments on this post: http://9gag.com/gag/aW67Bbq

[vanished]

1 hour ago, matrix07012 said:

Most comments on this post: http://9gag.com/gag/aW67Bbq

The worst part is people are arguing in the comments of that post  

[RustyZombie]

1 hour ago, matrix07012 said:

Most comments on this post: http://9gag.com/gag/aW67Bbq

My mom is the librarian at a small town library, and I often end up acting as her unofficial tech support.  One day she was having trouble with the keyboard not working.  Over the phone, I was trying to get her to try a few things to narrow down what the problem could be, but was getting confused when she kept talking about plugging the keyboard into the cpu.  I turns out she took a class to teach her about computer stuff, and one of the things they taught her was that the jacks in the back of the tower are called the cpu.  She heard me facepalm through the phone.

[vanished]

1 minute ago, RustyZombie said:

My mom is the librarian at a small town library, and I often end up acting as her unofficial tech support.  One day she was having trouble with the keyboard not working.  Over the phone, I was trying to get her to try a few things to narrow down what the problem could be, but was getting confused when she kept talking about plugging the keyboard into the cpu.  I turns out she took a class to teach her about computer stuff, and one of the things they taught her was that the jacks in the back of the tower are called the cpu.  She heard me facepalm through the phone.

oh god, so now not only are people being misled into thinking the whole computer is the CPU, but they're misidentifying other specific parts like the rear panel IO as CPU as well.  soon the HDD will be the CPU  

[ptcgplayer]

When I plugged my PC into my TV so that my friends could play some games at my house, and my sister enters the room and screams at me because apparently I could break my television because it is meant for watching TV... I tried to explain how monitors and TVs are kind of interchangeable if it has HDMI but she only got more angry! It was a struggle man.

[RustyZombie]

6 minutes ago, ptcgplayer said:

When I plugged my PC into my TV so that my friends could play some games at my house, and my sister enters the room and screams at me because apparently I could break my television because it is meant for watching TV... I tried to explain how monitors and TVs are kind of interchangeable if it has HDMI but she only got more angry! It was a struggle man.

Given the level of stupid and oblivious she'd have to believe that, and the fact she was yelling at you over what you were doing with your own stuff, makes me think she was just inventing a reason to dump her anger on you.

[NumLock21]

On 2/24/2016 at 1:53 PM, spark12072001 said:

just saw this on newegg

Please read the cons. What motherboard doesn't need a LAN driver????

What board is that, can you provide link.

Just want to see if that person don't know what he's doing or motherboard actually don't have with a disc. Out of all the boards I've installed, they all come with a disc. Only one I've got without a disc, was a server board from SuperMicro. Some even comes with a usb flash drive with the necessary drivers.

[Fgtfv567]

40 minutes ago, NumLock21 said:

What board is that, can you provide link.

Just want to see if that person don't know what he's doing or motherboard actually don't have with a disc. Out of all the boards I've installed, they all come with a disc. Only one I've got without a disc, was a server board from SuperMicro. Some even comes with a usb flash drive with the necessary drivers.

If you build a PC without a DVD drive, but the manufacturer gives you the drivers on a CD.. Well, I don't know what to tell except to get an external DVD drive. Good luck getting one of those at 10PM in the middle of the night