Get off my lawn you damn kids!

[thansal]

Um... I call it vocational school, too. And I'm 30.

To me a Technical College is a college that focuses on tech (or an Institute of Technology, think RIT or CalTech) and a Vocational school is a non-degree school, generally with certificate programs. Or am I missing something here?


As for 'older' people and tech? I have little to no patience with them. My hundred year old (yes, 100, just before the term started) grandmother uses a computer. She isn't the most proficient, however she doesn't break it every 5 days, and she sends out emails fairly regularly (I have a hard time responding to her, she has the most grammatically correct emails ever, it comes from being an English teacher most of her life :P). All of her children are either highly skilled, or at least moderately so. My parents are not exactly young (60s), my GF's parents are there also (her mum is past 70 now, you would never know) and they are all technically savvy (hell, my dad's a cs prof :P). None of them have the baked in understanding of computers (baring my dad) that people of my generation do, however they all pick things up quickly etc etc.

That all said, I get the urge to yell at people every time they pull the "People of my generation don't know these things", or "I'm too old to learn this". I had some one in their 40s tell me his generation doesn't understand this stuff. He was talking about STEREO EQUIPMENT! (This one made me want to throttle him) This isn't an age thing. This is being willfully ignorant. I understand that aspects of tech can be hard to pick up, and can be daunting, however, unless you are mentally challenged, you can learn it IF you are willing to put in a little bit of effort. I have taught a 90 some odd year old man how to use a computer in about 2-3 lessons. Hell, I taught him how to troubleshoot! Why? Because he wanted to do something I had no clue how to do, so I figured it out, and he asked me what I was doing as I went, and he LISTENED!

I have one rule about giving tech support to friends/family:
You have 2 choices:
1) Sit down with me and I will show you what I'm doing. IF you panic, ask me the same simple question more than twice, or complain about not being able to learn this stuff for any reason, you now only get option 2.
2) Go away and I will fix your computer. You may not ask me questions about what I'm doing, why I'm doing it or anything else. I will give you as much information as I think you can process, and that's it.
</rant>

umm, yah, this might be one of my little pet peeves :P

[Shalom]

She never even got a push button phone, but had rotary dials until she died .

What's wrong with rotary dial phones?

I've got one on my wall, right over ← there. It's an old WECo 352 wall set, with the second generation F1 handset and a dial with a Z on it.

Even works with my DSL, as long as I have the filter in there. People have told me that dialing a rotary phone will cut off your DSL, but it doesn't.

[Wenchie]

So, STOOPID called back. Not sure if it was the same STOOPID, but there's a good chance. Because my team lead was on a 30 minute call this morning with a woman, walking her through disabling the google toolbar.

I told her about my STOOPID from last night and we decided that it might be the same person. Or at least they may be from the same family tree (can you call it a tree if there are no branches?) stick.

[MadMike]

My dad still calls DVDs "tapes".

I've never heard anyone do that, but it used to drive me up a wall when video games still came as cartridges, and people called them "tapes." There's no tape inside those things!

My mom still calls technical college "Vocational school" or "Vo-tech"

They still call the one in our area "vo-tech." My son goes there.

[Whiskey]

I cleared the browser cache on my cousins computer and she said I had given her a virus.


Yeap.

[Ironclad Alibi]

my bf is the opposite everything has to be a debit....he hates credit transactions, I suspect because he never writes anything down in a register like you're supposed to.

I would think using a debit card would require keeping track of all your transactions so that you would not be overdrawn.

So do you not have any kind of credit/debit type card attached to a bank account that you use? And how on earth do you get cash for anything.....I use my debit card all time ....like Blas I don't usually have cash on me so there you go.

To get cash I use an ATM card.

You could have all the float in the world, but a credit card's not going to do you any good at, say, Arco or Costco (for Visa or MC).

Not a problem since I don't shop at those stores. If I did, I would make appropriate arrangements.

Years ago when I did shop at Costco they intially only took cash and checks. Then they had their own credit card, which I got. I recall them taking MC/Visa when they stopped their own credit card.

[Andara Bledin]

I would think using a debit card would require keeping track of all your transactions so that you would not be overdrawn.

You can't overdraw a debit card, under normal circumstances. Anything that would take you below $0 just fails. However, a lot of banks offer services that make it possible to do so, which sucks.

Years ago when I did shop at Costco they intially only took cash and checks. Then they had their own credit card, which I got. I recall them taking MC/Visa when they stopped their own credit card.

Costco does AmEx only. I suspect strongly because AmEx doesn't have a lot of rules in their merchant agreement other than that if you take any other credit cards, you have to apply their rules to AmEx as well.

^-.-^

[Gibbo]

My four year old daughter knows how to open programs and shut our laptop down correctly and how to maximise and minimise windows, simply by watching what I do.

Reading this thread reminds me of the time that I was sent to my Mother In Laws flat, about 5miles from my house, just to delete one folder.

[Shalom]

You can't overdraw a debit card, under normal circumstances. Anything that would take you below $0 just fails. However, a lot of banks offer services that make it possible to do so, which sucks.

Recently my bank (synonym for Pursue) was pushing this hard. You have to opt in to it, so they give you the whole spiel, presenting it as just something that needs a routine signature, and trying to make it sound like the greatest thing since the invention of the credit card. Well it is . . . for them, not us. "If you sign up for this overdraft protection, you'll never have to worry about having your debit card declined! You can keep on shopping in a carefree fashion and all your purchases will go through!And we will only charge you $34 for each purchase that causes your account to be overdrawn, up to a maximum of three times per day." Here is their brochure about this "service", if you'd like to see how slanted the presentation is for yourself.

I asked them, "What do I get out of this? Why would I want to sign up for it?" They said "Because now your debit card transactions won't ever be declined!" I said "Hey, if there's no money in the account, I want the damn card to decline! If that happens I'll use just another card, not keep on incurring $34 fees forever!" They said "Well, if you don't want it, just initial here on the Decline line." Which I did. I'm still annoyed about how they present it, though; I wonder how many people got taken in and suddenly have all these overdraft fees that they weren't expecting.

(I don't even have a freaking debit card. My ATM card has no Visa/MC logo on it (and it was hard to get one of those, lemme tell you, I had to argue for it), and I've only ever used it at ATMs. No idea whether it works as a debit card, but I would hope not. Still had to decline this "service", though. Not that I need it; I have the older version of overdraft protection wherein if my checking account goes overdrawn, they just refill it out of my savings account.)

[telecom_goddess]

I would think using a debit card would require keeping track of all your transactions so that you would not be overdrawn.
.

He tracks them online and debit transactions show up sooner than credit ones so....crazy way of going about it I say. I track everything in my register, checks too (although I almost never write those anymore). I track things online to make sure they match up with the register!

[blas]

I have only overdrafted once, and since I got paid the very next day, and didn't buy anything other than paying rent by check the day before, I didn't know until I checked my bank account and saw that I was in the hole for that previous day, but as soon as I got paid, it was back and they just deducted what I was short.

I don't really know why it irks me so much that my mom calls it that, it's just that the Technical College here isn't all tech stuff, it's 2 year degrees instead of 4 at a Uni.

[technical.angel]

I do the same thing. I have an app (Android) called Loot. It's basically an electronic checkbook register. I enter my purchases in that, and then at the end of the month, I make sure it balances up with online banking.

Great system.

[telecom_goddess]

What's wrong with rotary dial phones?

I've got one on my wall, right over ← there. It's an old WECo 352 wall set, with the second generation F1 handset and a dial with a Z on it.

Even works with my DSL, as long as I have the filter in there. People have told me that dialing a rotary phone will cut off your DSL, but it doesn't.

I like vintage phones for display but not actual usage.....everything is geared towards touch tone now.

[telecom_goddess]

I do the same thing. I have an app (Android) called Loot. It's basically an electronic checkbook register. I enter my purchases in that, and then at the end of the month, I make sure it balances up with online banking.

Great system.

I have an android phone so I will go check that out ....

[technical.angel]

It's the best thing in the world.