Learning comp skills

[jobel60]

Just an idle thought: How come some people can pick up computer skills so quickly and others ( like me ) have to slave at it. Granted I am 44 and an old fart but it seems to me that the people on the net are getting younger every time!
I don't think it's an IQ problem, ( I won't tell you mine, but I am sure it's wrong otherwise I would be working for NASA or Bush's campaign team) is it just that we get lazy as we get older?

[Melodi]

They teach computer technology (sort of) beginning with kindergarten now, so of course the younger ones are going to be more knowledgeable than someone who graduated 15 years or more ago. My friend's eighth grader needed to use my puter to build a webpage for some class project. In '99 my kids told me about something called the 'internet'. HUH? So I bought a computer, got a job in the field and my kids helped me learn. However, when in high school we did work on the TRS-80s and then in college I was introduced to something called a macintosh by a company called apple and we did our accounting on it, learned dos and basic programming with it too. After college I didn't give a computer a second thought until '99. I don't think mastering the computer is a matter of intelligence, but of the ability to think logically and not allowing that 'stupid thing with the screen and the thingee that sits on the floor' to get the best of you

[degsy]

the ability to think logically and not allowing that 'stupid thing with the screen and the thingee that sits on the floor' to get the best of you

That could include a TV & Video aswell

I got my experience through working with technology.
Me & me dad worked for the same company, but he was on the shop floor and I was in the CAD office.

I can work with PC's, tv's, vids etc. Can generally get around most tech problems.
My dad can do any sort of DIY, electrical work and Car mechanics etc.

Saying that, my dad now does online banking


What I mean is that when I got a job it was working all day with computers, so I became used to them, but for other people the may not have/need a PC and will not gain the same skills.

[enat66]

I think it probably has to do something with the capacity to learn and the fact that kids learn very early on about technology. They say that a little child can pick up a second language much easier than an adult can, something with the brain. I also think it has to do somewhat to how nowadays kids are taught about computers early on, and although the new concept they pick up later is something they have never seen before, it may follow a pattern or be similar to the stuff they first learned. For example, in Windows you learn that to save in Word you go to File> Save, with a new program when you want to save something you automatically go to File> Save, assuming it will be there.

[lufbra]

Not sure if Degsy learned this from his Dad or not, but he also knows how to lift a pint or three!!!

[sho-dan]

its a life drive to learn,not learning is not living(i:am 53 started computers at 49,the old farts will rule )

[Drum2jc]

not to make you feel bad, but it does seem that the younger you are, the more you know aboout computers....well thats not it... its just that more younger people tend to know about computers because we are growing up with them... i'm 15 and doing great with computers... haha and those IQ tests... haha thats another story... i took one and it told me mine was 136... (very smart) then my mom took it...136... my friend...136... noticing a pattern? lmaobut its okay... keep trying and you'll get 'em...
by the way, what are you trying to do with computers, anyway?

[degsy]

Are you guys trying to setup the CTH Silver Surfers Club

[dammit]

No Comment!

[renegade600]

Originally Posted by degsy

Are you guys trying to setup the CTH Silver Surfers Club

A new club...

[sho-dan]

count me in leased:

[mawil]

My office started out with a Radio Shack TRS80 (I think it was. It's been a long time.) You worked with 5 1/4 inch floppies to boot and then switch them to save files. I was the most interested in the "new" technology, so my boss sent me to school. I took a course in data entry and one in MSDOS. We gradually progressed to 486's and then Pentium 133s and on and on.

At home we purchased our first IBM 486dx and learned to upgrade the hardware, etc. Ended up building our own computers.

Meanwhile at work I became the system administrator because I was the only one who understood all that "computer stuff".

I was no "spring chicken" when I started learning all of this either.

[renegade600]

Originally Posted by mawil

My office started out with a Radio Shack TRS80 (I think it was. It's been a long time.) You worked with 5 1/4 inch floppies to boot and then switch them to save files. I

I remember those trs80's. I learned basic, cobol, and a few stuff on them - even though I do not remember single one line of code today. I also remember that they were a pain, floppy in, floppy out, floppy in, flopp... I also remember that the college was forced to take the carpet out of the classroom because static was causing problems.

[mawil]

Just found a picture of one here:

http://www.old-computers.com/museum/...asp?st=1&c=244

I also remember that we sent files to the IRS on a floppy disk and they wrote and told us it was infected by the stoned marijuana virus. I had a friend who was a computer whiz (even back then) and he found a program for me to clean all those *&^%$ floppies that we had data saved on. It was a boot sector virus and we were lucky we only lost a few files on each disk.

[sho-dan]

cool