Number 217 - June 2001

The Computer Grinch
by Butch Blasingame - December 2000 Hal PC, halpc.org via January 2001 Orange Bytes
Dr. Suess had it wrong. It wasn't the Grinch that stole Christmas, it was the computer. Really, that's not what I mean, but let me explain with an illustration.     It's Christmas Day and there's a new member of the household. It's a brand new Dellway Questa with the latest Pentalon 9999 Mhz chip and a monitor the size of Montana. Even though it's really Mom 's present, the kids want to play games on the new, fast machine. Dad also finds his hand itching to hold that new heat seeking, laser emitting, cordless mouse. So after a morning of the holiday sounds of Quake and Boom slayer, Dad sneaks his turn in while mom is in the kitchen. Then the inlaws arrive and the festivities continue. The guests get to play with the new hi-tech hummer and soon, it's the evening. Mom finally gets her time on HER present about 10:30. She's new to computing, but she's enthusiastic. Ah, where to begin.     Let's see, I move the mouse thingy over there and click. Wow, what happened--where did my screen go? What do I do now? One of the kids, up way past his bedtime, is eager to be "helpful." "Oh, mom, youjust did. .." the urchin said, while grabbing that mouse. Mom sends the child to bed, and looks at the "manual" that came with the machine. Really it's not a manual at all, since it's only four pages long. As she begins to read, it is apparent that whoever wrote this has the intention to impress the techies. It's filled with references to cache, slots, control panels, etc. Finding it no help at all, she sees a little picture on the screen. It says "Connect to the Internet." Cool, that's one of the reasons I wanted a computer-I'1l click on that. After being greeted with a "wizard" set up menu, she gets really bogged down. This time hubby is around to help. "Oh yeah, you just enter this and do that. .." taking over the keyboard.     Mom is now wondering if she really wanted this thing. Maybe I'll never know what to do with it. As Dad gets on the Information Highway and forgets that he was supposed to be helping her with the computer, she is sad and goes to bed. It seems that the whole family knows computers-except for me. My friend Laura at the Library Association is a whiz. but she always seems to be so far ahead of me when she shows me something. I'm just too much ofa beginner I guess.     Ok, some of this behavior is just the lack of sensitivity that people display, but there is a real dynamic in play here. It's one that I call "Geekism." It is discrimination based on lack of geekness. People without computer smarts are being looked down upon and ridiculed. Sometimes it's very subtle, but it's there nonetheless. Maybe you've experienced it at work when you called the IT department for help. Or it could have been from a family member like in the example you just read. Novices on computers are today's new minority. It's not fun if you don't know a bite from a byte or that CPU can mean something other that someone trying to revive another person. This may seem like it is no big deal, but really it is. Recently it was stated by a government agency that over a fifth of the US population would be functionally illiterate by the year 2003 due to their lack of computer skills. In a very short future, folks that don't know simple taskd like word processing, e-mail, and Internet browsing will be considered illiterate.	One of the reasons this club was started was to help stop discrimination over lack of geekness; to be enablers for the cause of technology. You can do your part, whether you are a novice or a guru. Try to help that person struggling with the computer and put yourself in their shoes. Let them fail and have to figure it out with your help, not you taking over. It'll be a happier Christmas for all and keep the Computer Grinch away.     Christmas Presents--Yes, there really is a Computer Santa Claus. Here is a list of some really cool free programs. They range from items that are incredible to ones that will need the proverbial shareware add-on to be greatly functional; some have the banner advertising thing going, but all are cool and ones that I've tested. They can all be found at with a quick search [at] www.download.com--it's the easiest way to get them, so I won't list individual url's.     Cool Page 2OOO--a fun little Web page maker. You'll have to pay to lose the advertising, but a great treasure of elements you just drag and drop for your page     Download Accelerator--yes, you really can get faster downloads with this. It resumes broken downloads and integrates well into browsing     Wake Up--a simple utility that keeps the connection going on long unattended downloads; a must for dial-up ISP people     Zone Alarm--No reason to be without a personal firewall with this available     Acoustica--A nice simple wav audio editor     Anvil Studio--A full-featured music and midi composer, with a great following; the ads are worth it     Quartz Studio--Turns your PC into a four-track stereo recorder     Traffic Attractor Lite--Promote your web site automatically and get more hits     2O/2O--An awesome image viewer, capture and editing program     Bob--Totally useless [Hey! - ed] and fun, must be experienced to understand, lose control of YOUR computer... can be addictive     Got to go, way past the deadline this time. Hope you all have a most blessed Christmas. Keep the Computer Grinch away and I hope the Computer Santa Claus visits with lots of toys. Remember the best gifts are the ones you give of yourself this season.     Merry Christmas, Butch B.     Butch Blasingame is a writer, graphic designer, and web developer. His articles appear in many PC related publications. Butch invites your e-mail feedback at butchb@butchb.com. His site on the World Wide Web is www.butchb.com.
Number 217 - June 2001