are we really not tech enough
 

to use that quote from bill goodland are the general public not tech enough to understand technology and its terms recent research has shown that the public dont understand terms such as mp3 and bluetooth

more then 1,500 people took part from the uk china us japan in the survey

only 3% of them understand what mp3 or bluetooth meant

even using the term mhz which describes computer 'clock' speeds meant nothing as most did not understand what it meant

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3054210.stm

so here comes my question to you all speaking from a personal point of view im excellent with technology knowing whats going on in the tech world in computing so i know what im talking about i understand the termanology etc

but what about you lot out there do you understand all or some of the technologys available how technology can be of benifit to you also how could it be simplified by the manafactures of certain lesure products ?

I understand most of it kronas and if I don't I look on the internet or ask other people on sites like this :)

I think the question that should be asked is do people want to understand technology, or do they just want it to work ?. Most just want it to work properly :)

i know IMO i think most people prefer it to be simplified rather then using the big words but if people dont understand what something does how are they going to buy the product to get it to work ?

the thing is if u ask my wife whats a cpu she wouldn't have a clue but i do u do 99% of people who use computers do, so it depends who u are asking most broadband users would be able to understand what the cap was seems to me they where worried that their phone system may be overloaded(whoops to late), most company that make major changes to contracts,services etc will create some sort of website to explain in layman's terms and the maybe a dedicated phone line for info but ntl don't do it that way

i know that most people dont ill give you an example my freind whos the same age as me knows basic things computers he has one uses it but its crap but he always tells me to come round to sort his problem out also he says he wants to buy one in the future and i will have to look at the spec and price for him he knows what a cpu graphics card is but not the tech stuff such as ram speeds cpu speeds graphics card types which ones are worth the money with fsaa etc

Nobody has to understand how technology works kronas before they can use it - most technology is simple plug and play which is what it should be :)

understood, ah ithought i was the only one fixing other people cyrix based systems with onboard trident video :D
p.s i've edited my post

but what im getting at is some people dont know what mp3 players are as an example they dont know how many the player can store which is improtant also some dont know what mp3's are you see what im getting at

Certain shops have guides that people can pick up which explain what things like MP3 players are kronas, but unless people pick up the guides they're going to remain ignorant. Some people just don't like change and some don't want change - not everyone cares what an MP3 player is or what it can do :)

lol i know what you mean although i dont know anything about cyrix systems really im used to the current technologys guess its my age really :D

yeah having read your post about broadband thats another example of what people dont understand what broadband is and how it can benefit people the diffarent speeds etc some of us think its easy to others they wonder wtf are you talking about


as i said it was an example only but one thing you will get with sales people they will feed you BS most likely in most stores to make you buy something expensive or something they 'recommend' when its infact a POS

Yeah but everyone knows or tries to know the things they need to know, you can't know everything, for instance you might not know the details of the carbon cycle (i think it's called) you might just know that you breath and oxygen and stuff means you can stay alive, being in IT you don't need to know about it so why worry?

Someone needs a computer to do a certain job, they ask someone who knows, job done sorted.

I get yr point entirely but being in IT i bet there are people in other lines of work who can't believe I can get by without knowing what They know...

The problem with knowledge is where to stop. That why medical General Practitioners aren't brain surgeons.
Do I need to know what von Neumann architecture is, or how to program in C++ to operate a computer? If I was a computer historian or a programmer, possibly.
If I was a father whose kids kept their school work on the thing and occasionally look up something on the net, I don't think I would need that stuff.
I actually like technology and take an active interest in mp3, Bluetooth, nanotechnology etc., but I don't actually need it.

I am fairly techy minded but something are just a bit over my head. Once I have read up on something it sinks in.:) The whole Bill Goodland Cap issue was slightly insulting. I have noticed though that if someone wants to appear very clever they'll say "you won't understand but basically" this to me makes me think hmmm how do you no that? Why not try me? I always ask questions, those who know what there talking about appreciate my interest. Those who try to bluff are soon caught out.;)

i know what you mean martin if im telling someone something techy ill tell them it in my terms if they ask what does this mean ill dumb it down as best i can and explain a hassle yes but people need to understand :)

OK, I got all 7 right and got the response (Grrrr!):
"Have you thought about entering the competition to find the sexiest geek alive?"

However, I was helped by the fact that the quiz couldn't resist putting in definitions that, whilst highly amusing, were obviously not the answer; I mean if you got question 4 wrong, you weren't really trying!

i got all 7 too but most people would not know what those definitions meant :)

Yep I got all 7 too:)

I can only agree. They weren't exactly the sort of things that most people chat about during the coffee break.