SubJeff on 23/12/2009 at 19:07
Yeah, its the age of the iPod. Everyone and his ugly sister has one, or a similar device, and guess what they play mp3s.
But what. the. hell?
More and more I come across people who don't "get" the idea of an mp3 (or an audio/video file) at ALL.
Let me backtrack for a bit, this needs a little qualification - this a rant. In 1998, when I'd just finished my Masters and started my new job, my office was ordering some new PCs and furniture and we got to look at the specs and whatnot. I was discussing the purchase with a friend, who had also finished the same degree, got a merit which was better than I did, and had got into Bio-Informatics via his web programming hobby (he was one of the 2 guys who ran thephantommenace.co.uk when Lucas forgot to buy the .co.uk domain).
It became clear to me that the guy did not understand the concept of RAM. "How much memory does it have?" he asked, as I ringed a rather naff PC in the catalog. "512MB" I replied. "Only!? You won't be able to store anything!" he retorted.
So we talked HDs and RAM and yeah he didn't know the difference.
Fastforward to 2009 and I just had a discussion with someone at work about seeing Avatar in 3D and how no the pirate BluRay you can get off Mr X will not work with the 3D glasses you have.
Then it hit me. This person was talking about Red/Green 3D glasses. Wait what? Now a few weeks ago there was some stuff on TV in 3D that was in Red/Green and someone else told me they'd tried watching and it wasn't very good so they used the (polarising) 3D specs they got from a Final Destination screening and yes it was much better.
Oooooookay then...
And last week someone else was buying a laptop and didn't know what RAM was and didn't care as long as they had 250Gb HD space but hey Sub do you think it'll be okay for games and videos? I can't help you sorry I don't know. I wasn't going to go into it.
I gave/lent someone a CD with mp3s on it and they told me it didn't work. Yeah, that's because your car's CD player doesn't play mp3s. Blank look. They own an iPod. These seemingly normal, intelligent (semi, at least) people not understanding basic technological concepts like RAM, music files, how 3D cinema works...
Jesus Christ people what is going on?
Or am I really being a twatish intellectual snob?
Rug Burn Junky on 23/12/2009 at 19:13
Quote Posted by Rug Burn Junky
Actual conversation with a colleague, while at an ATM:
Her: Wow, knowing you, I'm surprised that you don't use online banking.
Me: I do, I just haven't figured out a way to get my computer to spit out twenties.
.
SubJeff on 23/12/2009 at 19:30
lol
The ATMs in New York go online too?? :eek:
:p
henke on 23/12/2009 at 19:35
Quote Posted by Subjective Effect
Or am I really being a twatish intellectual snob?
I would say yes.
Fingernail on 23/12/2009 at 19:36
True this, just the other day I had to walk my 8 year old nephew through how to re-route the encryption codes of some bullshit client-side AJAX implementation using an alternative fuzzy logic sub-routine, and I was just like "dude, when I was your age I could calibrate the entire fucking positronic matrix of a generation 4 AI in like, I dunno, about two minutes or something"... I mean what the fuck
TBE on 23/12/2009 at 19:39
Yeah, surf the net whilst getting twenties for your latte. :thumb:
I have an ad in a local newspaper where I custom build PCs for people. One guy calls up and asks questions like the ones in the OP. Finally, he asks what speed the processor is. I tell him it's 2.7 GHz. He then says, "OK, thanks, I'll get back to you." in a tone like, "Yeah, that's so slow! My old Pentium 4 was faster than that." People don't get the whole dual and quad core thing.
Fingernail on 23/12/2009 at 19:40
And I stand by that. My Pentium 4 is still the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy.
denisv on 23/12/2009 at 19:47
Yes. I remember a time when we thought all this whizzbang technology and the Information superhighway would make people more civil, intelligent, and informed. Alas. We underestimated the Powers of Dumb.
doctorfrog on 23/12/2009 at 19:57
I think you're being a bit unfair, since it isn't always necessary to understand technology to use it. The average person with no interest computers can still get a lot of use out of one, and that goes for mp3 players as well.
It's bound to be archaic knowledge eventually anyway, if it isn't already. In the near future, if not now, it really doesn't matter how much space you have on anything, how it gets there, and how it gets played. You can get as much music as you want on it, and it sounds good. Not everyone is going to care about how it works, only that it does.
That said, for anyone under fifty or sixty, it shouldn't be difficult to get the idea across, but knowledge of how data is digitally stored and accessed is required first. Otherwise, there's no context for what you're telling them. You may as well break out finger puppets.
So yeah, a little twattish, but not much.
Muzman on 23/12/2009 at 20:04
It's all true, although it isn't really news. Despite how geeky and hightech the middle class world and the net seems at times, (we're all hip and happening, Wired reading hackers) you really don't have to step far beyond it to find that people really don't know a goddam thing.
They've all got phones and ipods and whatnot, but they don't know how any of it works and don't know 90% of the features even.
All that stuff the news tells you about how youth these days are very switched on and up to date with technology? Bollox. By and large they haven't got a clue. They buy shit and twitter and facebook and play Xbox and bullshit, but that really doesn't mean anything. And they don't care, what's more. It works or it doesn't.
Mostly I think all that talk is an indirect sales pitch to scare adults into buyng more stuff. When not curled in a ball listening to nostalgia bait commercial radio and clutching their Wedding Singer dvds that is.
