Computer Illiteracy

[KatMaestro]

Yesterday, I discovered my roommate don't know how to properly operate a computer. He claimed that his Mac has virus and it was lagging like a grandma. Which later I checked that he had a fucking massive adware running due from torrenting shits. I asked what did he download... Music.

All he gotta do is uninstall the shit, that's it. But he wasn't the only one I know who don't know jack shit about computer. I feel like a super-hero in my family everytime somebody want to install or use a new device. And !hello! we are in one of the most high-tech countries in the world... I feel shameful for us bearing that "hi-tech" badge.

Computer Illiteracy, I'm raising the qualification beyond "know how to browse Newgrounds/Facebook/Reddit" or "know how to torrent shits". What I'm talking about is do most people know how to troubleshooting shits without "Googling". Or repair/install their own OS. Or upgrade their own computer. Or have knowledge about shits they are using (e.g HTTP/FTP/HTML/SSL/SSH...) without showing cold face whenever I or you ask them this??

IT technician is probably gonna be an near-future excellent job, because far too many of those who can't use a computer.

[Havegum]

At 8/14/13 09:39 PM, Elitistinen wrote: What I'm talking about is do most people know how to troubleshooting shits without "Googling"

To be fair, proper google-fu can solve just about any problem.

[Gimmick]

At 8/14/13 09:50 PM, Havegum wrote:

At 8/14/13 09:39 PM, Elitistinen wrote: What I'm talking about is do most people know how to troubleshooting shits without "Googling"

To be fair, proper google-fu can solve just about any problem.

but people feel more confident asking the "expert" rather than google-fuing

[Tremulos]

Google-fu is a computer skill that many people do not possess. Every time I try to tell someone to use Google so solve a problem, they simply take it as me blowing them off and just continue living with the problem until I fix it. I've actually made some money here and there fixing stupid problems for people though so I'm not complaining.

[KatMaestro]

At 8/14/13 10:20 PM, DixieCong wrote: 0/10

troll harder

Oh look, a new breed.

[Makakaov]

At 8/14/13 09:39 PM, Elitistinen wrote: I asked what did he download... Music.

Sure.

[JimmyTheCaterpillar]

It's just nice to know Newgrounds is a community that can type fluent sentences.

[Tremulos]

At 8/15/13 01:00 AM, DecimatorOmega wrote: If you actually made money from just that, image how much money I'd be able to make for a problem. XD

Graham's number of moneys

[fuzzum111]

At 8/15/13 01:00 AM, DecimatorOmega wrote:

At 8/14/13 10:21 PM, Tremulos wrote: Google-fu is a computer skill that many people do not possess. Every time I try to tell someone to use Google so solve a problem, they simply take it as me blowing them off and just continue living with the problem until I fix it. I've actually made some money here and there fixing stupid problems for people though so I'm not complaining.

If you actually made money from just that, image how much money I'd be able to make for a problem. XD

Well the sad part is "google-fu" is a real skill. So long as your computer isn't so far fucked that you can't freely access the web without constantly being re-routed to a website trying to force you into buying fake "scanners" or other programs to "fix" your computer when they charge you to download a program that makes the problem worse.

It can be tough but showing someone how to google their problem and making them watch not just doing it yourself can help quite a bit. I hate when my mother used to ask me to fix a problem, then shed just walk out of the room while I fix it, or when she watches I have to do everything in super slow motion because she can't type worth shit, not to mention drags the scroll bar down slowly, instead of scrolling like normal people. So it became tedious to try and show her, and even when I did she forgot, repeated the problem then was unable to fix it again even though I just showed her how.

That...orrr it was one of those "Wedeman tech issues" we'd encounter all the time. I call them by my family's last name becuase that's what they were. The single most bizarre, never before seen errors and problems that even serious tech savvy IT grads had no fucking clue how to fix, even with clean installs of programs and other deeper fixes. Not to mention master-grade google-fu brought up nothing, or another poor SOB with a identical problem with 30 posts asking him to do the exact same stuff we tried already with the same result of "well fuck we have no clue what to tell you then".

Or you can take advantage of their idiocy and force them to pay you to fix it. Really up to what you think is right.

[supergandhi64]

i've never heard of a computer problem which a restart couldn't fix

--supergandhi64

[Lepy]

At 8/15/13 03:14 AM, supergandhi64 wrote: i've never heard of a computer problem which a restart couldn't fix

--supergandhi64

There we go. We got the solution.
There's no need for Google-fu. All ya need is SuperGandhi-fu and you're good to go.

[KatMaestro]

At 8/15/13 12:59 AM, DecimatorOmega wrote: I know what that feels like. Also if the people you know can't use Mac or Windows, then they're going to be in a living nightmare if they ever were to switch to Linux. I recently switched since I was tired for Windows getting fucked up randomly, and honestly, I actually like it so far and even though I am new to Linux, I happen to know what I'm doing.

I remembered about year ago I tried to introduce Fedora to my parents, they were all flinched. Then I switched to Ubuntu, they tried then complained that it's a Mac rip-off. My younger sister even labelled Linux as a "hacker system". I rolled eyes many times with them.

I guess you can say that both you and I are tech savvy. I play around with computers, with software in general. I 'figure it out' in order to get used to something or solve a problem. I will ONLY Google a problem up if I am unable to solve it on my own. Now granted there are times where something doesn't seem so simple to solve and Google just tells you the answer, I end up facepalming and thinking, 'Why didn't I think of that? I'm so stupid!' However sometimes there a problems that I personally encountered when I used to use Windows that even Google couldn't help at all. I'd either figure out the issue on my own and fix it, or give up if the problem can't be solved. My 4GB flashdrive that I had was an unsolvable problem because it was permanently stuck in write protect mode and I tried everything by the book. So yeah.

Tbh, I live on GoogleFu too. But I try to learn how to solve problems with colleagues or at least by myself. Because my boss doesn't like it. He strongly dislikes his admins perform GoogleFu every time the servers have problem. Yet, we still have sometime to look up manuals and notes. So instead every time we solved a new problem, taking notes is extremely important.

Like you and Tremulos said, I wish we earn money from just doing GoogleFu. In fact all Linux users are experts in GoogleFu, it's just too important in our life.

As far as adware goes, yeah. You just have to uninstall it. People don't know the difference between a computer virus and an adware/spyware program these days. People that aren't computer/tech savvy will assume that nearly everything has a virus.

Malware is the umbrella term for virus, worm, rootkit, backdoor, trojan, logic bomb, spyware, bloatware and adware. They just-not call everything else as "virus" and I'll be more happy to you than to my drinking holiday.

Just like how every one calls everything as "Internet". "Teh Internet is down!", "Harju! My Internet is lagging!", "Yo Harju, I can't go on PSN, the Internet must be down!". I'm not a tech-spelling nazi, but sometime I do get very irritated by people. If the Internet literally is down... then LOL.

Get this, there are people in the world stupid enough to believe that a Windows machine fresh out of the box already had a virus installed and ready to cause harm because apparently Microsoft is that evil. Yeah.... I've met some fucked up people in my day.

Actually I find that a lot from the Ubuntu and Mint people. Usually those who heard the media said shits about NSA or PRISM, then dumped their Win7 and switched blindly to Linux. And by the population they are mostly the conspiracy theorist type. It's a shame for the Ubuntu community.

I don't say Ubuntu is bad, as I use Ubuntu as one of my main system. But the platform makes too easy for people to use it without thinking. And now see, when Canonical introduces Amazon searching, they're all gonna flinch again!

I know that difference between adware and a virus because I've had both in the past. Usually viruses are your fault because you let it happen, but in my case, I've triggered a boot sector virus some freaking how or I just got real unlucky because when I had Windows with all of my files and I turned off my computer that night and turned it on the next morning, I couldn't boot up Windows. Period. Not even in safe mode, so I was forced to do a clean install. Not going to lie, for someone that is really good with software in general and doesn't have a problem solving any issues really, this depressed me like crazy for awhile. I eventually looked into Linux because I didn't want to pay for another stupid product key for Windows or hell crack it for that matter because I was just mad and frustrated as hell with Windows. I've grown up with Windows since Windows 95 and I know what makes Windows tick inside and out.

Kernel virus is nasty as fuck. To deal with typical bootkit, I use GMER or SinowalMBR. or AV Live CD. I have a stack of multiboot rescue, repair and forensic Linux. But then when the asshole wrote itself into BIOS, I have to reflash the whole hard drive. It's extremely terrible.

Crack and keygen are quite safe if you know which one to download. I test them on virtualmachine or sandbox before using on my Win 7 machine. Download the most popular ones from torrent sites and read their comments. Still, on rare time, one fucker just slipped through.

I've grown up with Windows too. I only found Linux during my secondary school's years. I use Windows for gaming and multimedia, while Linux for serious jobs and programming.

So I figured I'd give Linux a try, and I heard that Zorin OS is the best Linux distro to switch to for new users that are coming from Windows. So I went ahead and ordered the ultimate edition of Zorin OS 7. One month later, I'm still running Zorin OS 7 and I actually like it a hell of a lot more than Windows. Granted it's not Windows and it required a bit of a learning curve, but I can do it.

Yup! Zorin is very fancy. Much more fancy than Ubuntu or Mint. Well, at lot of Win programs can't run on Wine (not even CrossOver) like Ubuntu does, but it's a great place for starter. My most main OS is Arch Linux. If you are good at Linux commands and want to taste the power of control your OS, try Debian or Arch :). But like I said, only if you are good at CLI skills, hehe!

So yeah, I'm not the majority of the average computer illiterate people that 'give up' or use Google right away to solve a problem. Google should be used as a tool in the event that the problem doesn't seem so simple to solve however. In fact Google is a tool, and believe it or not some people can't even properly use it. Also, most people apparently believe everything on the internet to be true.... which is a problem.

I agree. As for people can't use it properly, that's so true! Typical Googling is one thing, Google Dorking is another. I'm a somewhat expert in dorking to find info that typical Googling not working. Right now if my task is to find your post on Google exactly listed on first page, I could do it.

As for everything on Internet is true, that's very danger. I used to compare info found from separated sources. Don't look up Wikipedia when you're doing serious stuff. You never know what can "Wiki tut" can do to you!

In short, if people are computer illiterate, chances are they will be illiterate in many other things as well.

I think we can safely say they are illiterate in mechanic things or anything more logical than their TV. Usually these people are institutionalized by media & the citizen-bubble, and very religious. I'm taking my family as example. Only my older brother, sister and I are pretty open minded about stuff around us. My father is so conservative that he was once a devoured member of True Finns, it's scary. He's very technology illiterate too. My dad would openly bash science if he ever heard stuff related to genome or DNA. It's hilarious.