Exchanges with People that Make Your Brain Hurt

[Diane AKA Traska]

My father is a complete technophobe:

F: I need to buy an iPod, will you come and help me?
Me: Sure ... wait, didn't I just give you an iPod last Christmas?
F: Yes, but it didn't have an instruction manual, and I thought if I bought a new one, it would come with an instruction manual.

It took me a minute to grasp that, yes, he was planning to buy a £200 gadget he already owns, just to get the instruction manual. I already put all his music on the iPod anyway, and sorted it into playlists, so all he really needs to know is how to plug it in to charge, switch it on, and play it.

Did you tell him he can get the instruction book online? If you don't want to print all that, you can bookmark it for him. He should be able to do that much even if all he does is email. I've bought several things lately that didn't have instruction manuals. My camera and my iPad, for instance.

I just remembered, it isn't just Apple and Kodak, our GPS from Garmin didn't have an instruction manual either, which was really irritating because my brother in law bought one and they don't have a computer. I printed it out for him and mailed it to him, but now there are so many features, that would be prohibitive. No way I am going to teach a 75 year old man to get computer savy and learn how to use a smart phone. Desktop computers used to come with instruction manuals, too. I don't remember when that stopped.

My Samsung cell phones haven't come with full manuals, either.

My Samsung Rant came with a manual thicker than the phone itself. 

[gramma dishes]

My Seagate external drive didn't either.  I had to call a friend to ask how the heck to do it.  The only instructions AT ALL that came with it were to plug the USB cord into your computer which was the one thing that was obvious even to me! 

[BabyMama]

The owner's manual stories remind me of my mom about 10-12 years ago. She decided she was going to get super heavy into scrapbooking, and so, because all the magazines said she should, she bought a copy of Photoshop.

She called me because she didn't know how to copy and paste or save as. She asked if I could write the shortcuts down on Post-its so she would remember.  If you can imagine, her stint with Photoshop did not pan out into a graphic design career, nor did it make her scrapbook pages look elite and professional.

[jedikaiti]

My father is a complete technophobe:

F: I need to buy an iPod, will you come and help me?
Me: Sure ... wait, didn't I just give you an iPod last Christmas?
F: Yes, but it didn't have an instruction manual, and I thought if I bought a new one, it would come with an instruction manual.

It took me a minute to grasp that, yes, he was planning to buy a £200 gadget he already owns, just to get the instruction manual. I already put all his music on the iPod anyway, and sorted it into playlists, so all he really needs to know is how to plug it in to charge, switch it on, and play it.

Did you tell him he can get the instruction book online? If you don't want to print all that, you can bookmark it for him. He should be able to do that much even if all he does is email. I've bought several things lately that didn't have instruction manuals. My camera and my iPad, for instance.

I just remembered, it isn't just Apple and Kodak, our GPS from Garmin didn't have an instruction manual either, which was really irritating because my brother in law bought one and they don't have a computer. I printed it out for him and mailed it to him, but now there are so many features, that would be prohibitive. No way I am going to teach a 75 year old man to get computer savy and learn how to use a smart phone. Desktop computers used to come with instruction manuals, too. I don't remember when that stopped.

My Samsung cell phones haven't come with full manuals, either.

My Samsung Rant came with a manual thicker than the phone itself. 

Actually, I think my S3 came with a semi-manual. More than a quick start guide, but not a full manual.

My Captivate had a link to the Samsung website for help, and I downloaded the PDF manual onto the phone, LOL.

[jedikaiti]

The owner's manual stories remind me of my mom about 10-12 years ago. She decided she was going to get super heavy into scrapbooking, and so, because all the magazines said she should, she bought a copy of Photoshop.

She called me because she didn't know how to copy and paste or save as. She asked if I could write the shortcuts down on Post-its so she would remember.  If you can imagine, her stint with Photoshop did not pan out into a graphic design career, nor did it make her scrapbook pages look elite and professional.

Oohhh, that is an expensive mistake!

[Pippen]

This wasn't exactly an exchange as such as I am pretty sure Ellen De Generes can't hear me through the TV screen but it did have my best friend and I going "You are doing what?! Are you totally insane"

She had a lovely old lady on her show who had given her retirement over to helping people in her community. Everyone loved her and had written into the show to see if she could be one of the people Ellen gives prizes like new cars or holidays to. So after a run down of all this woman's good deeds Ellen asks her what long held dream she had and this dear old lady mentioned she had always wanted to go to the Solomon Islands. Heck knows why because it is a dump. Ellen then annouces "Well we are sending you to the Solomon Islands for a week!" and the crowd starts cheering and going crazy.

We started going crazy too as that dear old lady was going to get herself killed. Not only is it a dump it is also one of the most dangerous places on earth at the time in the middle of a civil war had zero  tourism. Troops from Australia and New Zealand were there on Peace Keeping missions and my BF's ex who was a cop in the Armed Offenders Squad had got back from there saying it was hell on earth. They may as well have sent her to Mogadishu.

Our brains were just about exploding that no one in the production staff had even thought to do a check on where they were sending this woman, which was basically certain doom, as well as the fact the woman herself had not even thought of finding out a tiny bit more about the place herself.

[Diane AKA Traska]

Well, if you've got to have a place on your bucket list, at least it's one that will do the job right.

[Virg]

Luci45 wrote:

"Did you tell him he can get the instruction book online? If you don't want to print all that, you can bookmark it for him. He should be able to do that much even if all he does is email."

He might not own a computer.  sunnygirl described him as a technophobe and said she put all his music on the iPod and set up the playlists, so he wouldn't need anything more than a wall charger to use it.

jedikaiti wrote:

"My Captivate had a link to the Samsung website for help, and I downloaded the PDF manual onto the phone, LOL."

I must confess that I'll have to smirk privately when go to look up "Emergency Recovery for your Captivate phone".  The problem I'd have with doing this is that you'd have to have the manual open to look up some function and then switch away to do whatever you're looking up, then switch back for step 2 and so on.  I'm afraid I'd make step 4 for every function "hurl the phone away in anger".

Virg

[Nora]

Well, if you've got to have a place on your bucket list, at least it's one that will do the job right.

Padam TSHHH. 

[Adelaide]

There's a girl who is apparently sick in my law school, and she periodically blows her nose in the middle of class-which means that three classes a day, we have to listen to four or five blasts on the nose trumpet. These blasts were loud enough to make my Civil Procedure professor lose his train of thought, and he had to stare into the book and say "Um, uh....like I was saying....uh...."

Every time she does it all 80 of us whip our heads in her direction and stare at her because it's so distracting. I don't know why she hasn't gotten the hint yet. In some countries I think it's socially acceptable to loudly blow your nose in public, but she's not foreign. Besides all that, I don't think it's ever acceptable to loudly blow your nose in the middle of lecture. I'm just wondering how she made it this long without being called out on it. For that matter, how she managed to survive under the crushing weight of 80 glares all day.

[NyaChan]

I have the feeling that in her head, clearing her nose out thoroughly means she won't have to do it more often in a less effective manner, and she is apparently unwilling to leave the room to do it.  Not very considerate of her at all.  Unfortunately it isn't the sort of thing that professors will typically call someone out on.

[Snooks]

Strange Factoid: Aunt's cycle got a lot more normal after that. Not the 28 day "perfect" cycle but more like 30 to 34 days. Bodies are weird things.

My brain isn't working at quite full speed but isn't one of the things that can help PCOS pregnancy, and difficulty in getting pregnant is one of the effects of PCOS?  A nice little vicious circle there.

[jedikaiti]

Luci45 wrote:

"Did you tell him he can get the instruction book online? If you don't want to print all that, you can bookmark it for him. He should be able to do that much even if all he does is email."

He might not own a computer.  sunnygirl described him as a technophobe and said she put all his music on the iPod and set up the playlists, so he wouldn't need anything more than a wall charger to use it.

jedikaiti wrote:

"My Captivate had a link to the Samsung website for help, and I downloaded the PDF manual onto the phone, LOL."

I must confess that I'll have to smirk privately when go to look up "Emergency Recovery for your Captivate phone".  The problem I'd have with doing this is that you'd have to have the manual open to look up some function and then switch away to do whatever you're looking up, then switch back for step 2 and so on.  I'm afraid I'd make step 4 for every function "hurl the phone away in anger".

Virg

The effort of resisting step 4 is why I now have an SIII. :-)

[ladyknight1]

The owner's manual stories remind me of my mom about 10-12 years ago. She decided she was going to get super heavy into scrapbooking, and so, because all the magazines said she should, she bought a copy of Photoshop.

She called me because she didn't know how to copy and paste or save as. She asked if I could write the shortcuts down on Post-its so she would remember.  If you can imagine, her stint with Photoshop did not pan out into a graphic design career, nor did it make her scrapbook pages look elite and professional.

Your mom and my mother-in-law must be related. MIL had no hobbies other than bird watching and watching television. DFIL had been a photographer since he was in his teens, and MIL decided to take up hobby photography, using digital cameras. At this time, she had never used a computer. As soon as they would return from a photo-taking outing, she would follow DFIL around with her camera until he uploaded the photos and got them set up for her viewing.

MIL determined that she was "the best photographer in the world" (and told us that) and came up with myriad money making projects with her pictures. Greeting cards, calendars, magazine articles, etc. We heard about it every time we talked to her for months. DFIL spent hours trying to teach her how to use Photoshop and basic computer skills. He bought her a new computer and monitors and set it all up. Now, none of this would be professionally printed, no her plan was that she would just print it up on her home printer (that she doesn't know how to use) and gift shops would start selling it. We mentioned that she might need to start her own company with the state, and talked about marketing, but all such conversations were shut down, so we stayed out of it.

It never happened, and MIL hasn't used the computer in months for more than mahjong.

[BabyMama]

The owner's manual stories remind me of my mom about 10-12 years ago. She decided she was going to get super heavy into scrapbooking, and so, because all the magazines said she should, she bought a copy of Photoshop.

She called me because she didn't know how to copy and paste or save as. She asked if I could write the shortcuts down on Post-its so she would remember.  If you can imagine, her stint with Photoshop did not pan out into a graphic design career, nor did it make her scrapbook pages look elite and professional.

Oohhh, that is an expensive mistake!

The whole situation was pretty brain-hurty. I told her beforehand that Photoshop wasn't a good idea and that there were other, less expensive programs out there, but then, "How else will I get sepia-toned pictures with colored-out parts?" She also had a very, very basic computer (think right out of the box) so as you can imagine, Photoshop took up a pretty fair bit of its limited memory. She was always asking why her computer was running so slowly, and wouldn't believe it was because of her favorite program. "It's probably because of you kids downloading music on here." Because that's what I do when I come home on spring break from college--download music onto YOUR computer 

She also (and still does to this day) never closes Internet browser windows, which also probably aided the slow running computer. Sometimes I'll have to close 15 Flamingvixen windows before I clear out the screen.