What are your Mac's specs?

[hm_murdock]

Well, remember, there's quite a few people that are simply afraid of computers. Afraid to the point that they, for some reason, cannot follow simple directions displayed on the screen. I've seen this so many times.

I got my grandparents a Power Mac G3 All In One. They were both sitting there with it, exploring for the first time, after learning how to use the mouse (they thought it was a dial that you rotated). They were afraid to DO ANYTHING. Even after being told numerous times that it WILL NOT LET YOU BREAK ANYTHING.

Then, they did something and a simple dialog box came up welcoming them to some program. It had an image of a friendly character that was smiling, and a large "WELCOME!" graphic. Grandma nearly jumped out of her seat and exclaimed "WHAT DID I DO?!"

"You ran the program, grandma."

"But it says I did something!"

"No, it says 'Welcome!' Read what it says before you get worried about a message!"

It said:

"Welcome to Piece Of Software. Since this is the first time you've run Piece Of Software, you need to personalize it. Please tell us your name! Just type your name in the text box below!"

And the designers were geniuses. The text box was a custom button that said "Click here to type your name". The button was fashioned to look like a text box. You click the button, and its replaced by a text box. You type your name and then click "Next"

They sat there looking at it for about a minute, then my grandma said "what if I break it?"

:-o

Yeah. Older people are afraid of things, because they constantly worry that they're going to "break it". I'm not sure why.

[Paladin9]

quote:Originally posted by The Stiller:
i think he was afraid that the data would deteriorate slowly if he left it off. and he also left the monitor on for some reason.

old people can be funny

Actually, I heard that if a hard drive does not run for a long time (like several year) the data will actually get messed up.  But, you could turn a compuer off for many months and should not have any problems.

As for jimmyjames post: This reminds me of a VERY important rule people need to keep in mind when creating a program;  MAKE IT IDIOT PROOF!!!!  That way no one will get confused as to how to use the fucking program.  Jimmyjames said that it was genius or something that the program said "click here to type your name" and he is right!  Programs do need to be made like that so old gammy can write her emails or do whatever old people do on computers.

[Pinkster]

HEHEH..  i see some people have about FIFTY Mac computers, thats cool and all but, its not quantity that counts.. itd QUALITY.. in which i win suckers!!!! HEHE.... but seriously though, i wish i had more macs, i have a DCM mhz iBook Geforce Ti card (XXXIImb) DXII mb ram, XL gb hdd,,, but my fiance uses it. so... it isnt mine no more ehe..so, i have II macs , a few more to go.. i.e GV,, wooot.. goota get a blimey Dual II.VIII ghz VIII gb ram All-in-wonder CCLVI mb video card II TB hardrves.. that would soooo rule.. not to mention double my GIV... i can dream, cant i...

[skyman8081]

quote:Originally posted by Pinkster:
HEHEH..  i see some people have about FIFTY Mac computers, thats cool and all but, its not quantity that counts.. itd QUALITY.. in which i win suckers!!!! HEHE.... but seriously though, i wish i had more macs, i have a 1400 mhz iBook Geforce Ti card (32mb) 512 mb ram, 40 gb hdd,,, but my fiance uses it. so... it isnt mine no more ehe..so, i have 2 macs , a few more to go.. i.e G5,, wooot.. goota get a blimey Dual 2.8 ghz 8 gb ram All-in-wonder 256 mb video card 2 TB hardrves.. that would soooo rule.. not to mention double my G4... i can dream, cant i...

Fixed with modern (Arabic) numerals

[Stilly]

hooray or sauron!

[jtpenrod]

quote:
Ha! So why was he afraid to turn it off? Is he one of those people who thinks it is harmful for your computer to turn it on and off too much. That it a HUGE myth. It is shocking how many people believe that myth. Even the people on tech TV are unsure on the issue. Believe me, IT IS NOT BAD FOR YOUR COMPUTER TO TURN IT ON AND OFF REGULARLY!!! (unless maybe if you push the power button on and off repeditly)

Depending on exactly how old he is, this idea may very well be a hold-over from the vacuum tube days. Indeed, with vacuum tube based equipment, it was indeed better to leave it on all the time. A cold start will cause strong surge currents that could indeed damage the heaters and/or filter capacitors. It's not the problem that it was with modern solid state devices.

The other problem is that he could simply have been misinformed as to how memory works. If he heard about "volatile" memory, he could have assumed that all the computer's memory was volatile, and all his data would be lost. It would be natural to assume that if one didn't know about ROM. (Indeed, I read a Sci-Fi story back in the 1970s about a civilization whose entire fate, culture, and knowledge hung by a thread, as they had to keep the one remaining computer up-and-running, lest they lose all their knowledge to a power failure.)
_________________________________

Live Free or Die: Linux
If software can be free, why can't dolphins?

[Pinkster]

Originally posted by Deceiver::
HEHEH.. i see some people have about FIFTY Mac computers, thats cool and all but, its not quantity that counts.. itd QUALITY.. in which i win suckers!!!! HEHE.... but seriously though, i wish i had more macs, i have a 1400 mhz iBook Geforce Ti card (32mb) 512 mb ram, 40 gb hdd,,, but my fiance uses it. so... it isnt mine no more ehe..so, i have 2 macs , a few more to go.. i.e G5,, wooot.. goota get a blimey Dual 2.8 ghz 8 gb ram All-in-wonder 256 mb video card 2 TB hardrves.. that would soooo rule.. not to mention double my G4... i can dream, cant i...


actually.... CM Mhz, we were both wrong .. my bad... its 900, not 1400

[Mandrake]

1.25Ghz G4, 512mb ram, Radeon 9000, 80GB HD with the standard Apple keyboard, a Logitech USB mouse, 19" CRT, runs Panther.

[ March 21, 2004: Message edited by: Mandrake ]

[preacher]

433mhz celeron, 288mb sdram, 32mb nvidia geforce 2 mx200(I have 6 nvidia cards, they are awesome!!!!)

Operating System: Soon to be GNU Darwin......WOOOHOOOO!!!!!

[hm_murdock]

Darwin isn't GNU! :-o

It's close enough, though!

[flap]

quote:Originally posted by JimmyJames: GenSTEP Founder:
Darwin isn't GNU! :-o

It's close enough, though!

He means this.

[Annorax]

I've got an old PowerMac 7100/66av that's currently sitting in my garage due to lack of physical space to set it up.

Since it's extremely out of date, more so than me, and my hatred of this Win98SE box I'm currently using grows by the day... is there an emulator that'll allow dual-boot or just run MacOS on Wintel hardware yet??

[ March 21, 2004: Message edited by: Annorax, Temporal Revisionist ]

[Paladin9]

So you have the AV version huh?  If you hate your pc so much, but linux on it.  Otherwise, you can get and ethernet adapter for your old mac and run OS9 on it.  It would be pretty slow, but I would work, and could go on the internet.  Of course, you could also just buy another computer.

[typhoon_311]

1.25 ghz PowerMac G4
768mb Ram
80 gig HD
Mac OS 10.3

867 mhz 12 inch PowerBook G4
768mb Ram
40 gig HD
Mac OS 10.3

400mhz PowerMac G4 (looking for CPU upgrade)
768mb ram
40 gig HD
Mac OS 10.3

266mhz PowerMac G3 (my old comp)
320mb ram
20 gig HD
Mac OS 10.3

[hm_murdock]

That gnu-darwin link just took me to a login page asking for $15 so they could provide web services.

How about a link that tells me about the fucking thing!?!