Tech

Thing is though, when buying a SailRail ticket from Manchester to Dublin online from TfW’s website, they insist on a whole bunch of paper tickets rather than a QR code sent to your phone even if purchased via the TfW app - otherwise its a code sent via email that you have to enter into the ticket machine at Manchester Piccadilly with the same debit card your used to buy the tickets in the first place and the printed tickets still come with the old BR logo, which still gets strange looks at the Irish Ferries check-in desk at Holyhead for the ferry to Dublin - it’s even worse at Irish Rail if buying SailRail tickets at Dublin Connolly or at Irish Ferries in Dublin Port, as these are all hand-written, even in the post-Covid era 

At age 53 myself, I’m not too bad with tech, as I’d embraced much of it in my teens in the 1980’s despite my grandparents generation being totally against the internet and mobile phones (where I’ve discovered that they were correct in their opposition) and we now have a situation where it is now in effect mandatory to have all of these devices to exist in society, along with the censorship that crept in later on, while we have been rendered totally reliant on all of these, a huge problem in rural areas - I do agree that in the last 40 years it has gone way too far, even if it is about “convenience” - so many big companies and state bodies have moved everything online to do even the smallest things, as we discovered during Covid lockdowns - given the chance, I’d probably ditch it all, but it’s not practical to do so 

BIG lol !

I can offer some practical advice though

• avoid the trap of ‘I just want to do this.’ computers are  tools you have to understand how they work and how they are applied. you wouldn’t go to a woodworking class and while they’re trying to teach you to hammer in a nail say ‘but I just want to know how to make a cabinet.’
• learn the interface. Desktop personal computers and laptops have very similar Windows-based interfaces. A lot of the symbols are the same between different operating systems. The save symbol or the Wi-Fi symbol or the folder symbol, The email symbol often to all tend to look quite similar on different operating systems. Again don’t think about big tasks, think about what does this symbol mean. What does this little box or button on the window do.
• learn about clicks drags and gestures. Outside of wordprocessing Most modern computing doesn’t involve a lot of typing. It’s usually about manipulating symbols on the screen. with fingers Sometimes with a momentary touch or press and hold or press and drag. As if you were tapping or sliding counters around a board. there are also multi finger gestures. A touchscreen can tell the difference between one finger and two fingers and will respond differently. A common way to zoom in on an image is to put two fingers on the screen together and then take your fingertips and spread them away from each other on the screen.
• learn about clicks, you can use the mouse and it’s pointing to drag things around the screen as well or to tap them by ‘clicking’ them. Imagine the mouse pointer being like a single finger hovering over the screen. When you press the button it presses against the screen and when you release the button it releases. But unlike a touchscreen the computer knows which button on the mouse you pressed. By convention the button on the left is the one for basic actions moving things about for example. The button on the right is typically an alternative action often bringing up a menu of options related to whatever it is you’re interacting with.

Focus on the basics of interacting with the computer, learn its languages and conventions, and the tasks that you want to do with it will be so much easier later on.

I think you can summit up by saying that technology was designed to make our lives easier not simpler.

driving a car it’s complicated you have to learn to coordinate the steering wheel pedals the indicator to pay attention to the mirrors you need to learn the gears. Your brain has to multitask your body checking a lot of different things and making a lot of different decisions and manipulating a lot of different controls all at the same time. It’s far more complicated than walking which only requires you to coordinate your centre of mass and your legs and not bump into things.

however driving from John O’Groats to lands end is a hell of a lot easier than walking from John O’Groats to lands end. Technology makes our lives easier but the price is we have to become more complicated.

I am young enough to have a grown-up with computers. I had exposure to the BBC micro / commodore  before my teens and basic programming. I spent my teens using computers with GUIs like the McIntosh. It’s really wrong to think about a smart phone as a phone. It’s a touchscreen personal computer that’s had a phone added. If you already knew how to operate a desktop computer it’s not that big a leap. If you already knew how to operate an old-fashioned dos or Other text based computer using a modern PC isn’t that big a jump Either.

Computer literacy is as important as English literacy, it’s also sometimes for some people almost as hard as learning a new language. I would approach using your smart phone as being like learning a new language. You don’t expect to just pick it up as an adult you need to immerse yourself in it and be shown by people who know what they’re doing.

The plus side is there is a lot of overlap between these different computer systems. if you learn how to use one you have drastically reduced the effort you need to put in to learn another.

lol!! 

Yes I've always got Loose Women on in the background while I'm running around the house with the hoover in one hand and my feather duster in the other. I need something enlightening and inspiring to take my mind off the drudgery !!

That would be my preference too, but women ALWAYS need a TV set...  (taht's oen of teh major disadvantages of living with one, the idiot box is always on) 

I used to keep one for visitor use only, and to be honest I didn't use it myself except for the occasional DVD. I begrudged it the electricty for a start...

or do what I did, and not have a tv at all.  PC only and I don't watch broadcast tv or the streaming services.

Don't get a smart TV.

Unless you like "software updates" and half the thing not working after a few years as software is lapsed etc. 

Get a dumb TV and the smart BOX of your choice.

EDIT: My G/F got a samsung snmart T.V. but as it gradually lost "smart" functionality (which wasn't great in the first place) we added a roku... Now the screen is going blotchy a new (secnd hand but of highest quality) set beckions, and it will work with the roku, so we still get all the smart stuff et alia.

One 'skill' that has greatly help me, is googling the tech questions.  With practise, I learned the correct way to ask the question, the correct words to use, and then you get used to the sites with the good answers.

typically, it is "How do I <what you want to do> on <device or application>?"

So.  "How do I replace the belt on a zanussi xyz123 washing machine?" 

or. "how do log in to netflix on LG xyz123 TV?"

Keep it to only the words that are key to your question, as each word ou add will add additional results in the search.

Thanks Touay, I will, I want to get a smart tv and am completely confused, long gone are the days when you just went into a shop and got the one with the right screen size for your budget. I don't understand half the words they use individually let alone when put together. How on earth do I go about finding what I want and not getting ripped off by a sales assistant or buying something wrong online because I don't understand what I'm buying?

If you have any tech questions, I guess t wold be good to post them here. If you don't want to post publicly, feel free to message me. I am not going to promise I will always be quick to reply, but i will try! :-)

Oh I've tried finding classes, I've been bounced from pillar to post trying to find help, many organisations are in England, and don't opperate in Wales, or not Anglesey anyway. After about 2 months of phone calls, meetings and emails, two women came round my house with a lap top and showed me 2 phones I could buy from the supermarket down the road, then one told me I didn't really need any help as I could use email, that was it, that was all the help I could get.

Ohh I thought you said..

I have enquired on such matters with TM before and they said you can still pick up box office tix. 

I remember as a kid, looking at those 'big' landrovers and thinking they would be hard to drive, but they are the easiest thing I have ever driven, even the 110.  Nice flat sides, high seating position and big mirrors!  lovely!

My Dad had a Proper Land Rover, too. 

Sorry sister.  And never worry.....I love a pedant !  It's how I learn and correct myself !  Thank you.

  i do love a 'real' landrover.

LucyLandRover said:

There is a reason I drive a 1976 land Rover