Reply #15: I've been trying for several years to get my father

[Mythsaje]

more computer literate. Part of it is because he's afraid of messing something up (rather difficult unless you do something really, really stupid), or because he's afraid of identity theft. He's in his sixties, and had a very good idea his whole life that this was coming in one form or another. He's the one who got me into sci-fi, after all.

I'm mostly self-taught myself. By the time I was in college I rejected any notion of taking computer classes because I wasn't willing to spend 11 weeks learning something I could teach myself in a matter of three or four. I don't have the patience for that. There are, as a result, a few holes in my knowledge, but I have worked with every major operating system from DOS to XP (my wife has Vista but I haven't explored it yet) as well as gaining some familiarity with Macs (I've used System 7, at least) and even (how many people can say THIS?) Amiga. I miss Amiga.

Not to mention self-taught in every version of Word since the early days, FrontPage, Paint Shop, and several other programs. I'm good at learning, and at teaching myself. At one time I even knew how to use Excel, though I really had no use for it and have since forgotten a lot of what I knew. I can put together a Powerpoint Presentation as well, should I have the need. Databases mean nothing to me--I have no use for them.

I'm 41. I remember when the TRS80 came out. My friends had one and I told them, at the time, "why don't you call me when they can actually DO something useful?"

My first computer was a 386 running at 8 or 12 MhZ. I laugh when I think of that, considering a PDA is now more powerful than it was.

Frankly, I think a lot of it's fear. Fear of trial and error, which is how many of us learn these things.

:shrug: