One thing I get tired of hearing is people saying that they’re “an internet computer dummy.” Imagine that. What if you heard someone say they were “a bicycle dummy.” Anytime some activity requires them to ride a bicycle somewhere, they have to call their bicycle “expert” in order to get the task accomplished. Apparently they’ve refused to learn to ride the bicycle. Or just don’t have the patience it takes to get adept at bicycle riding.
Some people take longer to learn to ride bicycles. Some people have to use training wheels and ride for years with those extra wheels on there. Eventually they learn to ride. But no one ever calls themselves a bicycle dummy.
Its the same way about computers and the internet. Its certainly not magical by no means. People just need to take a little extra time and patience to learn it. They somehow expect that computers will make their life a whole lot easier. Yet they don’t realize is that they might have to work to figure it out. No one was born knowing how to ride a bicycle and no one was born knowing how to use the internet. There’s a learning curve there.
I just get tired of people referring themselves as internet dummies and not trying to do anything about it.
Maybe its because of all these Computers for Dummies and The Idiot’s Guide books. We’re all calling ourselves dummies for some reason.
So I’m sorta frustrated. I offer to do a school’s webpage for free, yet I can’t seem to get FTP access to their server (yet). Only the school’s administrator can get to it for now. I decided I really shouldn’t even bother working on the webpage unless I had FTP access…or knew exactly what the server’s abilities and limitations were. I’d like to do shtml and/or php on it. But all my work would be in vain if it wasn’t available. Write the page in php and then have to redo the whole thing…. You know the drill.
It was sorta weird the other day. When I sat down and discussed the webpage with the principal, I think she was thinking I was going churn up a webpage then and there. These things take time. Whatever webpage I churn out is going to have to meet my standards….standards that can’t be met within a hour or so on a principal’s computer. Not that my standards are far superior than everyone else’s. I just get sick of looking at crappy webpages.
So if I can’t get FTP access, I guess it will mean me going back and forth to the school with a floppy disk. Quite teadious and unnecessary.
Friends, the next big thing is the Lexar Media Jumpdrives. Get yourself one of these. I managed to find one on sale at the local Office Max. Holds 64MB of data and fits on the end of my keychain. Compatible with Win 98 through WinXP. Pretty soon we’ll all be using these.