another embarrassingly ignorant comment...

[jazzmfk]

Hi! So there I am, walking into my music classroom yesterday morning. The engineering and computer drafting teacher (!) is standing in the doorway (his homeroom was moved there today due to repairs on some of the Dulls in his room). I went in, saying "excuse me, I just have to turn on the computers because we'll need them next period". He watches me reach around the side of the first eMac and asks "They built the computer right into the monitor?" At first, I didn't think I heard him correctly, but then as I pressed the on button on the iMac in the next row, he said "wait - all those monitors have computers built right in?"

How can you been a computer teacher and be THAT ignorant? Sheesh.

MFK

[PlaceofDis]

LoL, thats kinda of funny, but yeah as a computer teacher one would expect him to be a little bit more knowledgable about the area in which he teachers, but his reaction is genuine...priceless

[rainman::|:|]

i've actually heard this from a few people, when iMacs were first popular, they kept asking me where the computer was. This is in fact a step up from the mid-90s, when your average computer user thought the computer was the screen-- and that little box attached to it was a "disk drive" of some sort, purely optional. I remember actually getting in an argument after i was asked by a client to recommend a way to plug the keyboard/mouse directly into the keyboard, to get rid of the PC itself.

but, this is a decade later, and a computer teacher no less. If it was a public school, i'll say i'm 50% surprised. if it's private, he should be tossed on his ear.

paul

[kgarner]

I work at CompUSA part-time and I get a lot of people asking how they can hook up "this screen" (pointing to flat panel iMac) to their computer. They are always amazed when I tell them that "is" the computer. Oh, and the eject key on the keyboard always impresses.

[wordmunger]

Oh, and the eject key on the keyboard always impresses.
I have an embarrassing story about my own ignorance in this regard. The first time I used a Dual 1.25 G4, I spent about an hour trying to figure out how to open the CD drawer to insert a CD. There's no button anywhere! Here I've been using Macs for almost 20 years, and I can't figure out how to put a CD in the @#$# machine! Finally someone pointed out that I just needed to press the "eject" key on the keyboard.

Oh.

I guess it just goes to show you that everyone can be an idiot sometimes.

[Doctor Q]

The computer teacher might have knowledge that's frozen in time, from when HE learned to use computers. They didn't "build the computer into the monitor" back then.

[rainman::|:|]

The computer teacher might have knowledge that's frozen in time, from when HE learned to use computers. They didn't "build the computer into the monitor" back then.

actually, in quite a lot of terminals, they did... the iMac/eMac design was kind of a throwback to the old terminals, for me at least... at any rate, the concept has been around almost as long as CRT computer displays have...

in the same vein as the CD story above, when i first switched to Macs from Apple IIe and IIgs systems, it took me like a half hour to eject a disk, it was terribly confusing. When i finally figured it out, that the machine would actually eject the disk itself, i gathered up a bunch of friends and brought them over to the machine i was using (a IIvx i think) and demonstrated. I was like "behold!" they were like "uhhh yeah".

In hindsight it was embarassing, i did it in a library full of people that knew quite well how to eject a disk...

paul

[kuyu]

When I bought my emac, about half of my friends asked me where the computer was. I think most people are conditioned to look for a big black box, at least subconsiously.

Also, a good number of people couldn't figure out how to turn the thing on. At least it keeps idiots from using my mac. :)

[jefhatfield]

Hi! So there I am, walking into my music classroom yesterday morning. The engineering and computer drafting teacher (!) is standing in the doorway (his homeroom was moved there today due to repairs on some of the Dulls in his room). I went in, saying "excuse me, I just have to turn on the computers because we'll need them next period". He watches me reach around the side of the first eMac and asks "They built the computer right into the monitor?" At first, I didn't think I heard him correctly, but then as I pressed the on button on the iMac in the next row, he said "wait - all those monitors have computers built right in?"

How can you been a computer teacher and be THAT ignorant? Sheesh.

MFK

i have a friend, phd cs in 1982, who thinks his 486 and pentium 1 are still mostly state of the art because it is much better than "the computers he dealt with in college"

and he thinks broadband is only for porn ;)

[rueyeet]

i have a friend, phd cs in 1982, who thinks his 486 and pentium 1 are still mostly state of the art because it is much better than "the computers he dealt with in college"

and he thinks broadband is only for porn ;)

Hmmm....your friend wouldn't be a command-line DOS man, would he?

Here's a story of ignorance for you. While I was considering the switch to Mac and beginning to check out the platform for myself, I picked up an iPod in CompUSA. I'd heard over and over again how anyone could figure out the interface in five seconds, yet I couldn't for the life of me get the thing to go up or down in the menus. The right and left buttons went from one menu level to another, and the middle one was obviously the select, but the other buttons only played/paused the music or brought the menu back. :confused:

I was too abashed at not being able to figure out the Easiest User Interface Ever to ask anyone how it worked, so it wasn't until later that I learned of the magic of the almightly Scroll Wheel.

You may all point and laugh now. :p :D

What's obvious to one person, or even to most people, will not be obvious to everyone.

[wPod]

heh, that reminds me of when i was working IT at a certain un-named university (dont want to insult the profs) if someone's monitor was having problems i would replace it and when i was done they would sometimes say 'thanks for the new computer you didnt have to do that' or 'is it going to run faster now?' . . . funny those same people would always be the ones to release viruses on the e-mail system. . . 'so i am not supposed to open an attachement if i dont know who it is from?' 'but the e-mail said it would fix my computer'

[Roger1]

I have an embarrassing story about my own ignorance in this regard. The first time I used a Dual 1.25 G4, I spent about an hour trying to figure out how to open the CD drawer to insert a CD. There's no button anywhere! Here I've been using Macs for almost 20 years, and I can't figure out how to put a CD in the @#$# machine! Finally someone pointed out that I just needed to press the "eject" key on the keyboard.


That's funny. It's even better when your using the wrong keyboard (happened to me) :o

[jazzmfk]

and he thinks broadband is only for porn ;)


So then, according to today's other topics, broadband can lead to good prostate health, and maybe cure cancer?

[Sun Baked]

I remember actually getting in an argument after i was asked by a client to recommend a way to plug the keyboard/mouse directly into the keyboard, to get rid of the PC itself. Not too far out considering some computers actually were inside the keyboard until the ugly beige box took over.

[gbojim]

This reminds me of a great story. Back in the Windows 3.1 timeframe, a friend was doing his PhD and him, another student and his prof went to I think Cornell for a few days to use some piece of equipment that was quite rare. The equipment was controlled by a Mac which was foreign to them. They had to use the equipment over the weekend since they were visiting from another University so there were no tech folks around on the weekend. I get a phone call on Saturday morning from my friend. An error message is telling them that the disk is too full to start a new project so some data files need to be deleted. So I asked him why not just delete the data files? None of them could figure out how. So I asked him if he could see the waste basket in the corner of the screen? I've never let those guys live down the fact that a full prof and 2 PhD candidates failed to figure out how to delete a couple of files.

[mvc]

And in future, the computers are all going to disappear into the walls and furniture, leaving disembodied screens lying around and increasingly relying on speech/gesture control to interface.

Its the natural human centric focus we all have you see, the only bits that matter are the bits we interact with, all the action happens on the screen so that must be the "computer".

It was difficult enough getting adults to start using mice in the early days, as it removed the physicial action one step from the visual reaction and they struggled to coordinate it all. It was unlike most other interfaces they had seen or dealt with. Thats why there was so much effort put into touch screens in the early days of computing until greasy little fingers ruined it all.

But the kids, they had no problems with mice, so now we are still stuck with them and keyboards as the prime interface 20yrs on. Bring on haptics and speech recognition, and then we will actually start to converse with these devices.

I'm sorry Dave, I can't do that … ;)

[leftbanke7]

I work at CompUSA part-time and I get a lot of people asking how they can hook up "this screen" (pointing to flat panel iMac) to their computer. They are always amazed when I tell them that "is" the computer. Oh, and the eject key on the keyboard always impresses.

Which one do you work at? Every time I go to a CompUSA in the SL Valley, I first get the "He's walking to the Apple section" glare from most everybody and 9.9 times out of 10, when I ask an Apple specific question, I get some jerk wad who doesn't know a thing. I have yet to find a Mac knowledgable employee at a CompUSA.

[wdlove]

The computer teacher might have knowledge that's frozen in time, from when HE learned to use computers. They didn't "build the computer into the monitor" back then.

What about the original Classic Mac Doctor Q? Unless that would be before his time.

[Doctor Q]

I know teachers who call a monitor a "terminal" because they learned how to use computers in the days of mainframes. Of course, mainframes are still around, if you know where to look!

[wowser]

Zoolander: "The files are in the computer?"

[laserbeahm]

I've heard people actually say that the old CRT iMacs don't have CPUs.

I think that a lot of computer teachers say things like "Where's the computer" just to be mean. I'm sure they know very well of the all-in-one system. After all, the original Macintosh was an all-in-one. I think it makes them feel better about themselves.

[G4scott]

Zoolander: "The files are in the computer?"

I just saw that movie this weekend... I know product placement is a good thing, but geez... I could tell what was gong to happen the instant he said that line... Poor iMac...

[mymemory]

Ok, I have my new 12" PB with my 20" cinema display and the wireless keyboard.

So, I have the computer inside the closet with only one cable to the monitor and of course, kb and mouse are wireless.

When everybody see the set up every body says: Wow, what a nice computer, is it a G5???

People just get impressed by the monitor but they do not realize there is not actual computer any where. Of course I have Final Cut Pro running most of the time.

And about the New iMac, it took me a while to realize that was the computer itself too, even I now it is, if you catch me distracted I would ask for the actual computer too.

[XnavxeMiyyep]

I have yet to find a Mac knowledgable employee at a CompUSA.
Amazingly enough, there are actually many Mac knowledgable employees at my local CompUSA. I still prefer going to my local Mac store (not an actual Apple Store) as opposed to CompUSA though.

[Doctor Q]

The previous all-in-one Macs like the classic and the LC 500 line had the screen above the "computer section", so you still had the feeling you had a computer and a display. The eMacs are mostly screen, so you don't get that feeling. If you don't know any better, you can imagine it is a stylish, if rather bulky, monitor and that the computer is elsewhere.

[Apple //e]

there was this site with stupid computer mistakes, my fave was about a person complaining that the computer wouldnt send faxes.

the tech asked the client to show him how he/she was sending faxes

the customer placed a sheet of paper to the monitor, picked up the mouse like a microphone and shouted "fax, fax, fax"

[ffactory]

just like my old commodore vic20, connected to the 10" b+w set someone stole from a motel. it would so piss me off when my basic programs would take up all 3.5kb of user ram....

[Chappers]

Well I had a sales person in PC world ask me how to turn on the Mac in store so he could demo it to a customer.

Also I heard a computer teacher (less than 2 years ago) tell her students that the only good way to back up was on a floppy.

[kgarner]

Which one do you work at? Every time I go to a CompUSA in the SL Valley, I first get the "He's walking to the Apple section" glare from most everybody and 9.9 times out of 10, when I ask an Apple specific question, I get some jerk wad who doesn't know a thing. I have yet to find a Mac knowledgable employee at a CompUSA.

I work in the Orem Store. I am usually there Tuesday and Friday nights and sometime on Saturday.

[wowser]

I just saw that movie this weekend... I know product placement is a good thing, but geez... I could tell what was gong to happen the instant he said that line... Poor iMac...

but 'twas a funny film ;)

[evoluzione]

i sometimes think that Macs are TOO easy. they're just so logical at most things that people just don't beleieve it's that simple to do something. so many times i've been asked how to do something by various people and i show them, and they all say the same thing "wow, that's it?". so i tell them, "yeah that's macs for ya, if you want to do something, just think of the way you would want to do it, and, it'll probably work. rather than trying to figure out how the computer wants you to do something. also, there's generally about three ways to do everything on a mac too."

[jefhatfield]

Hmmm....your friend wouldn't be a command-line DOS man, would he?

Here's a story of ignorance for you. While I was considering the switch to Mac and beginning to check out the platform for myself, I picked up an iPod in CompUSA. I'd heard over and over again how anyone could figure out the interface in five seconds, yet I couldn't for the life of me get the thing to go up or down in the menus. The right and left buttons went from one menu level to another, and the middle one was obviously the select, but the other buttons only played/paused the music or brought the menu back. :confused:

I was too abashed at not being able to figure out the Easiest User Interface Ever to ask anyone how it worked, so it wasn't until later that I learned of the magic of the almightly Scroll Wheel.

You may all point and laugh now. :p :D

What's obvious to one person, or even to most people, will not be obvious to everyone.

actually, he hates dos and C/C++ because they are owned by microsoft, actually bill gates...and he does not like the fact that i am a microsoft techie and "inactive" microsoft developer...he tells me to move to unix but i base my business on microsoft products...hey, they break down ;)

how could i make a living fixing unix or mac issues...i would be bored ;)

he likes java and prolog and i think he has tired of moving through the changes of computer science from the 70s until now...and there have been changes to say the least

[Nermal]

I have an embarrassing story about my own ignorance in this regard. The first time I used a Dual 1.25 G4, I spent about an hour trying to figure out how to open the CD drawer to insert a CD. There's no button anywhere! Here I've been using Macs for almost 20 years, and I can't figure out how to put a CD in the @#$# machine! Finally someone pointed out that I just needed to press the "eject" key on the keyboard.

I suppose I might have had a similar problem if it wasn't for me getting an iBook first - the iBook had a bright orange sticker on the keyboard saying "press this key to open the tray".

I suppose on a "Power" machine, they just assume that you know how to eject a CD :)