Posted on 12/25/2007 5:28:49 AM PST by Kaslin
When I bought one of these small, cheap, old-fashioned cathode-ray TV sets on sale to watch while on my exercise machine, I had no idea how high-tech and computerized even these obsolete sets had become.
Nor was this a blessing. I could not even turn the set on and get a channel without reading a 60-page instruction book. If the truth be known, I could not do it even after trying to make some sense out of the instructions.
The next time my computer guru came over to help me with my computer problems, I asked him to set up the TV set so that I could turn it on.
After he went through the instruction book and waded through all the high-tech options -- none of which interested me in the slightest -- he set up the TV so that I could do something as elementary as turn on the set and choose a channel to watch.
Unfortunately, this was not an unusual experience. All kinds of computerized products -- cameras, cell phones, even car radios -- have had the same problem.
There must be some blind spot that computer engineers have which prevents them from seeing that (1) most people are not computer engineers, (2) there is no point making simple things complicated, and (3) not everyone is looking for a zillion features to have to wade through to do simple things.
Let's start at square one. What is the first thing you want to do with any computerized product? Turn it on.
Why should that be a problem when people were turning things off and on for generations before there were personal computers?Yet computer engineers seem determined to avoid the very words "off" and "on."
Apparently they feel a need to coin new terms for everything, no matter how simple or well-known those things may be. For computers, the word is "start," which you have to go to for either turning the computer off or on.
With our microwave oven, the word is "power." For my car radio and cell phone, there is no word at all.
For other things, there is the same coining of new words for things people already understand by old words. Printers can be set for "landscape" or "portrait," as if people had never heard of horizontal and vertical.
When I had to have a new radio put into my old car, I told the man who installed it, "I didn't go to M.I.T" and wanted the simplest radio to use that he had.
Yet even the simplest radio he had in stock came with over 100 pages of instructions -- and nothing on the radio that said "on" or "off." In fact, none of the buttons on the front of the radio had anything to indicate what they were for.
The man who installed the radio turned it on for me. But this was an old car that I did not use very often, and I did not always want the radio on when I was driving.
Since he had not told me how to turn it off, I just turned the volume down as low as possible, rather than go into the 100 pages of instructions.
I would probably never have learned how to turn that radio off and on if the car's battery had not gone dead one day. While I was waiting on the roof of a parking garage for the Triple-A truck to get there, I had nothing to read except the radio instruction book.
Desperate times call for desperate measures, so I read the instruction book. You might think that telling you how to turn the radio off and on would be on page 1. But you would be wrong.
That would be too obvious, and computer engineers avoid the obvious like the plague.
Eventually, I came to the place where the instruction book said to turn the radio on by pressing the "source" button.
There was of course nothing on the radio itself that said "source." By leafing through the instructions, however, I eventually found a diagram where one of the buttons was identified as the "source" button. Eureka!
My new cell phone also has nothing to give you a clue as to how to turn it off or on, much less do anything so complicated as phone somebody. The next time the car battery goes dead, I will read the thick instruction book, so that I can call Triple A.
Thanks for the info re Photobucket. I copied it, and will implement it as soon as Christmas is over.
Thanks for the course in computer terms. I’ll get to the Photobucket fix soon as possible.
Excellent idea, John. I’ll look into it. Thanks.
Another pet peeve is when one instruction book is for several different models and it is up to you to decide if the instructions are for the one you own or not. It is not always clear.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
I still have some tech manuals written back in the ‘50s and ‘60s for offset printing equipment I used to work on. Most of those old manuals are so good that a person who could read and follow instructions could probably have fixed a lot of problems on one of those old machines even if he had never seen one before. Modern tech manuals, by comparison, are like deciphering the Rosetta stone.
I had this experience lately when trying to buy a radio for a 98-year-old shut-in whose vision was failing too much to read the newspaper any more. I went to every store imaginable, and there was nothing simple enough even for me to operate, much less an arthritis-impaired elderly person with limited vision.
I did find one radio with an old-fashioned dial for the stations and an on-off switch, but it was well over $100. Anything that cost less than that was made in China, had LED lights and all kinds of tiny buttons that you had to push in various combinations to find the stations, or they had aerials that could have put her eye out.
Mr. Sowell has made some good points, but his blame is mis-placed.
Thanks to affirmative action, outsourcing, and importing cheap, unqualified labor, most American computer engineers are working outside their field, selling real estate or some other doo-dads. Most management jobs in engineering and IT are filled with bimbos whose previous experiences were working the pole at the local strip joint. They won't hire qualified American engineers and computer scientists.
If you are using Safari as your browser on your Max OS X, go to the word "Safari" at the upper left of the toolbar, just next to the blue Apple logo. Click on it and a menu will drop down. Scroll down to "Empty cache" and click on it. A box will ask you if you want to empty the cache, and click "Empty." That's all there is to it.
This step clears out any old IP addresses.
Then re-enter "http://www.photobucket.com" to go to Photobucket, and see if those steps have fixed the problem.
See post 107. The mac user almost NEVER has to type any code or understand any acronyms. That’s the beauty of a Mac. There is a way to do what you need to do and a way to find out how, but using the steps and information readily available in the drop-down menus.
Thanks for the course in computer terms. I’ll get to the Photobucket fix soon as possible.
Their advice sounded like they are PC users to me, who has been a Mac user since 1989. See post 107 for the simple instructions about how to empty a Mac OS X Safari browser cache. If you are using a different browser than Safari on OS X, the steps you follow to empty the cache should be somewhat similar.
You can figure out just about anything on a Mac by using the pull-down menus and following the trail of information presented. No need to type in code or understand any acronyms.
I doubt the problem is there... the DNS resolver cache clears every 24 hours automatically. If you are still having the problem after not using the computer for 24 hours, it's probably not the cache.
By the way, you should leave your Mac turned on... it does housekeeping tasks after there has been no user interaction for three hours.
However, the "terminal" is an application in your Utilities folder called "Terminal" (for some strange reason) that gives a user access to the entire command set of UNIX. It's sort of like DOS. Run the Terminal and type the command in the window and press RETURN and see if it fixes your problem. It can't hurt.
However, I don't think the problem is in the DNS Resolver Cache b'cuz it flushes every 24 hours... unless the Photobucket people are changing their servers' IP addresses every 24 hours. Server Roulette, anyone?
By the way, the big Apple computer is the Mac Pro... there is no iMac Pro... but you'll love it. As of Leopard, OSX is fully Unix certified.
By the way, would you like to join the Mac ping list on FR? If so, Freepmail me.
I have a high text watch with probably 50 features of which I have learned how to use exactly none.
About twice a year. after cruises or trips, I need to make photo DVDs and have to relearn how to use the programs, as one will not do everything I want.
I have driven rental cars wishing I could turn on the radio and had to call room service in hotels to turn on the TV.
My cell phone hang up symbol turns the phone on and I have yet to use the camera.
Maybe my camera can be used as a phone but I will never know.
Mr. Sowell is righton as always. I just had this experience with a new coffee pot.
Almost any cell phone, without a service contract with anyone, can still call 911. Keep one in your glove compartment with a car charger... plug it in, power it up, and call. No need to pay anyone.
About twice a year. after cruises or trips, I need to make photo DVDs and have to relearn how to use the programs, as one will not do everything I want.
The part that really BOTHERED me about that watch is that among my meatspace peers, I am considered an Alpha Geek. Imagine how embarrassing it was to have to give up on that watch!!!!
Imagine having to live THIS down!! (Even though the link to the certifcate seems to have expired...) " Guy can't run his WATCH!"
***Almost any cell phone, without a service contract with anyone, can still call 911. Keep one in your glove compartment with a car charger... plug it in, power it up, and call. No need to pay anyone.***
What an GREAT idea. Thank you Swordmaker. I’ll get out my old Virgin cell phone, charge it up and give it a try.
Hmmm....I wonder if that works for Triple A, too. Nah, they have their own cell phone ads now, so maybe not.
Thanks again.
***Imagine having to live THIS down!! (Even though the link to the certifcate seems to have expired...) “ Guy can’t run his WATCH!”***
LOL! You’re making the rest of us feel NORMAL. I can’t wait to tell my adult son because he was given a beautiful watch three years ago and can’t use it. It makes you feel SO stupid.
So, you were on Water Street at 4:24 PM, yesterday. You cut out early. :-)
127 John Street is an entertaining building.
That clock might be forty years old.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.