> however, I know my dad better: He has no clue when it comes to doing 
> maintenance on a PC. All he does is allow the automatic update to run.

My dad has no clue either with regard to maintenance, yet he somehow managed 
to uninstall the sound card driver and then of course I had to walk through 
installing it again over the phone.

Post a reply to this message

message de news:48b5b402$1@news.povray.org...
> They also accused my dad of having messed with the system, however, I know 
> my dad better: He has no clue when it comes to doing maintenance on a PC. 
> All he does is allow the automatic update to run.

Really, never understimate people who have no clue when it comes to mess 
with computers. Some time ago, all it took to get a BSOD on my old laptop 
(that had been BSOD-free for years) was a friend of my wife, who wanted to 
chat on Yahoo and somehow managed to plug/unplug the modem at exactly the 
wrong moment. Not that they are guilty, but they do certain "dangerous" 
things that more geeky people wouldn't dare to.

BTW, was your Dad's Vista upgraded to SP1? Certain vendors were still 
selling machines with pre-SP1 Vista and I know from experience that it did 
have issues with automatic upgrades.

G.

Post a reply to this message

Gilles Tran wrote:
> 
> Really, never understimate people who have no clue when it comes to mess 
> with computers. Some time ago, all it took to get a BSOD on my old 
> laptop (that had been BSOD-free for years) was a friend of my wife, who 
> wanted to chat on Yahoo and somehow managed to plug/unplug the modem at 
> exactly the wrong moment. Not that they are guilty, but they do certain 
> "dangerous" things that more geeky people wouldn't dare to.
> 

People who have no clue about computers and know it are a lot wiser with 
computers than people who have no clue but don't know it. Last group 
tries to fix everything themselves, while only doing things worse.

> 
> G.
> 


-- 
Eero "Aero" Ahonen
    http://www.zbxt.net
       aer### [at] removethiszbxtnetinvalid

Post a reply to this message

Eero Ahonen wrote:

> People who have no clue about computers and know it are a lot wiser with 
> computers than people who have no clue but don't know it. Last group 
> tries to fix everything themselves, while only doing things worse.

As So Greats once wrote, "the greatest knowledge is in knowing that you 
know nothing".

I forget exactly how many millennia ago he wrote that... Seems oddly 
fitting, does it not?

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

Post a reply to this message

Warp <war### [at] tagpovrayorg> wrote:
> Tim Nikias <JUS### [at] gmxnetware> wrote:
> > It's a Samsung with Vista installed.
>
> Two solutions come to mind, the first one not so drastic, the second
> one more drastic:
>
> 1) Upgrade to [some other version of Windows]
> 2) Upgrade to Linux.
[ 3) Go to Mac]


2003: the response above would be the troll or OS-fascist's attempt to start a
flame war.
2008: the response above needs to be said by more brave souls in these troubled
times.


The question then, if Linux is chosen, is which distro is best for guiding your
Dad in for a landing over the phone.  I've seen Linux big-wigs in forums say,
"I positively do not care if Linux is ever the right OS for someone's
grandfather. UNIX never was."  I think I'd stay away from a distro where too
much say was purists about closed source drivers.  Folks' Dads might not be
able to roll their own.

Post a reply to this message

gregjohn wrote:

> The question then, if Linux is chosen, is which distro is best for guiding your
> Dad in for a landing over the phone.  I've seen Linux big-wigs in forums say,
> "I positively do not care if Linux is ever the right OS for someone's
> grandfather. UNIX never was."  I think I'd stay away from a distro where too
> much say was purists about closed source drivers.  Folks' Dads might not be
> able to roll their own.

I think somebody needs to sit down and write an OS which *is* designed 
for people's dads to use.

However, I seriously doubt that anybody is going to do this just because 
I say so...

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

Post a reply to this message

> 
> I think somebody needs to sit down and write an OS which *is* designed
> for people's dads to use.
> 
IMHO, I'd say that the key obstacle would be the vast diversity of 
hardware you can find on people's dads computers. All the different 
possibilities drivers may or may not co-operate, not supported hardware, 
etc.
And yes, I have your favourite Amiga in mind, when I say that.

(And yes, I own one too, but not your kind of fancy A1200 with HDD and 
whatnot. I'm prowd owner of an A500, Kickstart version 1.2, 512kB chip 
and 512kb fast ram, OCS and no HDD but additional external floppy drive! 
Youngsters...)

Post a reply to this message

Michael Zier wrote:
>> I think somebody needs to sit down and write an OS which *is* designed
>> for people's dads to use.
>>
> IMHO, I'd say that the key obstacle would be the vast diversity of 
> hardware you can find on people's dads computers.

Both Windoze and Linux seem to have got around that, not to mention 
MacOS. So it can't be that insurmountable...

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

Post a reply to this message

Nicolas Alvarez <nic### [at] gmailcom> wrote:
> I'd rather keep the job

  You can report anonymously.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

Post a reply to this message

gregjohn <pte### [at] yahoocom> wrote:
> The question then, if Linux is chosen, is which distro is best for guiding your
> Dad in for a landing over the phone.  I've seen Linux big-wigs in forums say,
> "I positively do not care if Linux is ever the right OS for someone's
> grandfather. UNIX never was."  I think I'd stay away from a distro where too
> much say was purists about closed source drivers.  Folks' Dads might not be
> able to roll their own.

  Well, you have two options:

1) A computer with an OS which has a steep learning curve.
2) A computer with an OS that doesn't even boot.

  Which of the two options is better?

-- 
                                                          - Warp

Post a reply to this message