Author Topic: the award for most clueless pc user ever - my candidate. (Read 61408 times)

nudone · « **Reply #25 on:** March 09, 2008, 07:45 AM »

agreed, it's always of kinda dumb not following a standard - but then having a bit of variety makes things more fun.

or maybe the standard is quite simple. by default, icons require a double click and buttons/links require a single click.

whatever, the golden rule i try to introduce to computer novices is: click it, if nothing happens, double click it, if nothing happens right click it.

(revealing that there is a 'right click' capability has sometimes induced a sudden expression of despair in the computer novice i've been with.)

hmm, i'm beginning to remember why a lot of people still positively hate computers - our favourite toys just don't make any kind of sense to the initiated.

Curt · « **Reply #26 on:** March 09, 2008, 08:21 AM »

... the golden rule i try to introduce to computer novices is: click it, if nothing happens, double click it...
-nudone (March 09, 2008, 07:45 AM)

Regarding my best friend, it should be: "... click it once, if nothing happens, double-click it once""...

jgpaiva · « **Reply #27 on:** March 09, 2008, 08:24 AM »

or maybe the standard is quite simple. by default, icons require a double click and buttons/links require a single click.
-nudone (March 09, 2008, 07:45 AM)

Yeah, actually you're right

(still, the tray icons don't quite follow this rule, are a mix between icons and buttons

)

TucknDar · « **Reply #28 on:** March 09, 2008, 08:30 AM »

... the golden rule i try to introduce to computer novices is: click it, if nothing happens, double click it...
-nudone (March 09, 2008, 07:45 AM)

Regarding my best friend, it should be: "... click it once, if nothing happens, double-click it once""...
-Curt (March 09, 2008, 08:21 AM)

Armando · « **Reply #29 on:** March 09, 2008, 10:06 AM »

or maybe the standard is quite simple. by default, icons require a double click and buttons/links require a single click.
-nudone (March 09, 2008, 07:45 AM)
Yeah, actually you're right
(still, the tray icons don't quite follow this rule, are a mix between icons and buttons )
-jgpaiva (March 09, 2008, 08:24 AM)

Double clicking vs single clicking is like learning French grammar or orthography --> all the exceptions don't make sense. Yes most computer illiterate double click everything, so they have it covered. If some stuff required three clicks, maybe they'd triple click everything?

tomos · « **Reply #30 on:** March 09, 2008, 01:15 PM »

I mean.. They allowed developers to have single-click OR double-click on tray icons, how stupid is that?
-jgpaiva (March 09, 2008, 06:51 AM)

agreed

I think there's absolutely no logic to having to double click a tray icon - well...
maybe for those beginners $:-\$ *
It's one of the few things in this world where I use the word ~hate~

For the desktop I guess the logic is you can select it if you want to edit the name
but trying to double click a tiny icon in the tray just does my head in

deep breath, okay, I'm better now...

* but if a single click works so should a double click ?? or I suppose sometimes that could open a second window of programme. Ah well..

tomos · « **Reply #31 on:** March 09, 2008, 01:21 PM »

My dearest friend comes twice a week to use my unstable PC to check her hotmail and facebook accounts, giving both of us a challenge. Mine is to stay a gentleman, and hers is to let go of the mouse and wait for the chosen feature to respond and for the page to load. Only, she can never wait that long. Over and over she will start click
-Curt (March 09, 2008, 04:17 AM)

hah,
ironically* I'm still a bit like that (well I've only been using computers since 1999

) -
I'll bet she's an Aries

no patience - nope none of that

* especially if you've just read the previous post

Cloq · « **Reply #32 on:** March 09, 2008, 04:27 PM »

Double clicking vs single clicking is like learning French grammar or orthography --> all the exceptions don't make sense. Yes most computer illiterate double click everything, so they have it covered. If some stuff required three clicks, maybe they'd triple click everything?
-Armando (March 09, 2008, 10:06 AM)

* click.. click.. click.. * Am I surfing yet? Isn't google suppose to come up? oi..

Curt · « **Reply #33 on:** March 09, 2008, 06:42 PM »

* click.. click.. click.. * Am I surfing yet? Isn't google suppose to come up? oi..
-Cloq (March 09, 2008, 04:27 PM)

I guess it depends on settings. This is what happened when I 3-clicked your post:

... maybe it's because the menu is hidden away - therefore it must be something strange - only for the very brave to peer upon. only technical experts may venture into the arcane depths of the mysterious menu(s).
-nudone (March 09, 2008, 05:20 AM)

I have just proved that I am like that. After 18 months of membershib I never found the childboard to our Found Deals and Discounts thread for members, until someone directed me today! Embarrasing it is, but true.

Well, as I said:

I will like to thank you all for the gentle way you speak about me. All these posts about me, but not even once did you spell out my name. This is why I just love to hang out at DC. You are so tender - Thank You, guys!
-Curt (March 09, 2008, 04:17 AM)

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #34 on:** March 09, 2008, 06:58 PM »

Some of the best 'clueless ideas' come from software companies that:

1) Include a license inside the shrink wrapped product that you have to agree to BEFORE opening the package (MS and Adobe figure largely here)

2) People who design installers that only unpack the installation instructions so that you can read them after installing the product (almost all shareware and freeware seems to fall into this category)

Armando · « **Reply #35 on:** March 09, 2008, 07:02 PM »

1) Include a license inside the shrink wrapped product that you have to agree to BEFORE opening the package (MS and Adobe figure largely here)

2) People who design installers that only unpack the installation instructions so that you can read them after installing the product (almost all shareware and freeware seems to fall into this category)
-Carol Haynes (March 09, 2008, 06:58 PM)

Deozaan · « **Reply #36 on:** March 09, 2008, 11:14 PM »

Or with people who are still on dialup (the poor saps!) if a link is taking too long they click it again... and again... and again. Therefore putting themselves into a never ending loop of requesting the page information.

Renegade · « **Reply #37 on:** March 10, 2008, 01:35 AM »

Some of the best 'clueless ideas' come from software companies that:

1) Include a license inside the shrink wrapped product that you have to agree to BEFORE opening the package (MS and Adobe figure largely here)

2) People who design installers that only unpack the installation instructions so that you can read them after installing the product (almost all shareware and freeware seems to fall into this category)
-Carol Haynes (March 09, 2008, 06:58 PM)

Hahahaha~!

For #1, I wonder if you could open it, read the license, then return it because the license is too restrictive...

For #2, all too true. But the installer itself should usually guide you through. I like to package my own software in a ZIP file so that I can include instructions before the installer is run at all. I don't always include that, but sometimes.

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #38 on:** March 10, 2008, 03:38 AM »

For #2, all too true. But the installer itself should usually guide you through. I like to package my own software in a ZIP file so that I can include instructions before the installer is run at all. I don't always include that, but sometimes.

You quite often see restrictions or pre-requisites listed in the installation instructions that only appear after you have installed. I have lost count of the number of time I have had to un-install a piece of software in order to do something before installing it!

CleverCat · « **Reply #39 on:** March 10, 2008, 03:56 AM »

A friend said..

"Do I have to be online to visit that website"?

Duh.....

Curt · « **Reply #40 on:** March 10, 2008, 08:22 AM »

"Do I have to be online to visit that website"?
-CleverCat (March 10, 2008, 03:56 AM)

app103 · « **Reply #41 on:** March 10, 2008, 11:06 AM »

I will never forget the time my husband came home with a black & white printout of a page of one of the sites I made. (it was for the company he worked for)

A customer had told him that they found the website doing a google search, printed it out in black & white, and handed him the copy of the page.

My husband came home all upset, thinking that google had stolen my work, and even worse...messed it up by removing all the color from it. He wanted me to sue google. Now his boss isn't much brighter, suing was all his idea, and he was actually going to find me a lawyer.

I had to go to my husband's job, sit the both of them down, tell them to stfu and listen (they were yelling, hopping mad)...and gave a lesson on what a search engine is and does, assuring them that nobody stole the site and that nobody had ruined it. I had a tough time convincing them that people coming in because they discovered the place through a google search was a good thing...that the website was serving its purpose.

As new customers came in mentioning how they found the site on other search engines, I had to repeat this process for each different search engine that was mentioned.

tinjaw · « **Reply #42 on:** March 10, 2008, 11:26 AM »

Most clueless group of pc users[1] are, without a doubt, the Upper and Lower houses of the U.S. Legislature.

[1] If you define "pc user" as somebody who has a staffer print out emails for you so you can dictate one back for the staffer to type up and send. 'Cuz dat der inkertubez is komplikated.

cranioscopical · « **Reply #43 on:** March 10, 2008, 11:46 AM »

Cuz dat der inkertubez is komplikated.

Maybe, but it ain't nucular fizz-icks, George!

TucknDar · « **Reply #44 on:** March 10, 2008, 01:31 PM »

My husband came home all upset, thinking that google had stolen my work, and even worse...messed it up by removing all the color from it. He wanted me to sue google. Now his boss isn't much brighter, suing was all his idea, and he was actually going to find me a lawyer.
-app103 (March 10, 2008, 11:06 AM)

CleverCat · « **Reply #45 on:** March 12, 2008, 02:51 AM »

"Do I have to be online to visit that website"?
-CleverCat (March 10, 2008, 03:56 AM)
(see attachment in previous post)
-Curt (March 10, 2008, 08:22 AM)

CleverCat · « **Reply #46 on:** March 12, 2008, 03:05 AM »

I also have a friend still running Windows 95 on an old PC who's NEVER right clicked or deleted a file!

I made him this mouse pad..

nudone · « **Reply #47 on:** March 12, 2008, 03:08 AM »

i've heard the "do i have to be online?" question from someone also. they used to browse in offline mode looking at cached pages so that probably added to the confusion.

here's one i've just remembered (i think i've mentioned it before a long time back on the forum)...

i have a relative that i don't have any contact with except at funerals and weddings. she probably shouldn't be allowed near a computer. why? well, she believed that a computer 'worm' was a living creature that somehow travelled down the cables into her pc (someone might have told her this as a joke).

it gets worse. a friend (as another joke) instructed her that the worm can be removed by squirting detergent into the 'slot at the front of the computer' (floppy drive). this seemed like a reasonable solution to her so she had to be warned not to actually go ahead and do it.

is she of sub normal intelligence? supposedly not but who am i to know.

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #48 on:** March 12, 2008, 04:14 AM »

I have mentioned it elsewhere on these forums but there is the story of the user who after the introduction of 3.5" floppies was confused and folded his old 5.25" floppies in half to get them to fit ....

nudone · « **Reply #49 on:** March 12, 2008, 04:39 AM »

that is also a classic.