Nick Farrell of The Register writes on computing-ignorance:
One of the problems Ross has spreading Firefox is that many people don’t even know what a browser is...
I think the problem is of even deeper ignorance. I exchange emails with a family relative several times a week. Yet the relative claims that he never goes on the Internet. (His reason? "Becauase it's not safe.")
It doesn't matter how many times I tell him that (1) emailing means he's on the Internet; and (2) emailing is the most dangerous Internet activity. It just doesn't sink in.
I think the problem is one of distinquishment. Unless you are deeply imersed in a subject, it can be difficult to understand differences between items (or even realize there is a difference). I experienced it in my first weeks of using computers (terminals connected to mainframes) at the University of British Columbia -- late 1970s. Initially, I had no concept of the difference between data, programs, and operating system commands.
Back to today: another relative cannot distinquish between dialog boxes and windows. And when one window covers up another, the underneath one is no longer available, in her thinking, because the Taskbar is meaningless.
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