This is a VERY TRUE story!
My old man & old lady are 67 years old. A few days ago my old man bought mum an Acer laptop computer & printer. Mum’s always writing letters, and the typewriter she’s got is getting too old.
Anyway, Mum’s all excited and wants to start using it straight away, like head long into it without any regards as to how computers work.
Mark ( my 20 y/o son ) & I spend some time with them so they can perform the basic functions....... open, save.... etc......
All is good, for a while, then it goes downhill REAL quick. Mum’s arguing with dad because she can’t set a particular font up as a default. We tell her that you just set it up and save as stationery, but she won’t have any part of that, oh no...... “I thought these new fangled machines were supposed to do what you wanted to!”
Well, now they’ve both got the shlts up with each other, and the old lady sinks in the boot by dragging out the old typewriter and FIRMLY placing on the desk IN FRONT of the laptop, she didn’t have any letters to write, just making a point........ it was priceless.
She tells me ”Your bloody father can have the damn thing! I’m sick to the back teeth with it. He can use it to get onto the internet, that way he will have something to bloody
well do!”
Okay, so we’re not at a total loss yet. Mum’s spat the dummy, but the old man is prepared to learn about the net. WRONG!!!
Now, just run with me here for a minute......... these are THE VERY SAME PEOPLE that do not own a Microwave, Mobile Phone & DVD player. These are the VERY SAME PEOPLE who bought a pack of CDRs so they could record the ABC FM classic music onto their CD player!
So, the old man rings up an ISP and SOMEHOW!!!!, manages to get himself on the net. Stroke of luck if you ask me. Anyway, he thought he would go to all of the Pommy newspapers and download their crosswords, and all the other stuff old people do......
Well, you should of heard it....... ”Jesus christ Ian, they want you to PAY to download things, and the smut!!!, where does that all come from?” His victorian upbringing is clouding his view of the net. I try to explain how things work, but he already knows EVERYTHING!
Anyway, 4 days pass, and he’s managed to visit all of the sites that had any reference to where he has lived in the past. “Guess what Ian, I’ve been everywhere on the net now, I don’t need this computer anymore!”
I was just about to tell him of his folly, but I sensed that he was battling with this new technology. At least they had a go.
Now, it gets worse!!!!
My sister lives next door to my olds, and she wanted to buy it from them. They sold it to her, and she was away........ surfing the net.........sending me emails............until it stopped working. Oh dear........
She calls me... ”Ian, can’t get this thing to work properly, ISP said to download this and do that etc...” This girl is in the same mould as the olds, never had a computer, let alone surf the net, and now she’s downloading and installing drivers etc.! Warning bells are sounding.
I heard the other day that she took the laptop back to the
shop where dad got it from originally, and told them to fix it, or refund her.
Today I received a phone call from mum.............”Ian, it’s Mum.......your sister’s in tears! The bloody computer is back, but not working properly. Your sister has accused your father of selling her a bum steer, and dad’s not happy, I’m sick and tired of this whole damn fiasco!”
To cut a long conversation short, I managed to onsell the laptop to one of my friends, who is a computer geek. All the way through this, I kept thinking about that bloody film.....The Gods Must Be Crazy........ where the coke bottle falls from the sky and causes turmoil amongst the tribe, so they send one of their men to the end of the earth to throw it away.
I just couldn’t get the image of an Acer Laptop falling from the sky..............