Comments on: Time to Upgrade My Parents

By: Anon

Anon — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 00:36:00 +0000

8| Mother of toolbars!

By: Anon

Anon — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 00:36:00 +0000

8| Mother of toolbars!

By: Zutronic

Zutronic — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 09:31:00 +0000

I tell my mom the same thing. I empathize.

By: Zombiebovine

Zombiebovine — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 07:30:00 +0000

I’ve recently had to explain to family members why having more things on the disk doesnt make the computer slower. People seem to heuristically link things being on the hdd with the computer being slow, because they have a memory of new applications and bloatware that they installed which made things go more slowly.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 00:10:00 +0000

My father-in-law takes pictures till his memory card is full, transfers them to his pc so he can delete them off his 2 gig memory card. It kills me. I have multiple cards that are full And buy new ones when i fill them up. I guess i just value my time a bit more.

By: Joecrouse

Joecrouse — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 20:10:00 +0000

As a 3rd Tier Executive support persono you came off as a bit of an arogant technosnob.
The only legitimate complaint I read in your entire article is the browser loaded down with junk and thier software installation habits.

The tech doesnt need to be top of the line. It has to function to thier level of need.
The rest seemed to be whining and snobbery. Your State generaly wont let you drive with the phone in hand or even giving directions via a hands free system. How many pictures do you think your folks are going to take you take. Geocaching?? Your folks probably dont care. The PC Not hooking up to the latest and greatest peripherals? If they dont have the latest and greatest (you mentioned the old phone the old camera ect ect) why would they get something newer. What they have works for them. New and shiny isnt nearly as important as utility.

By: Max

Max — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 12:10:00 +0000

Even worse if they turn on more noise just to show-off.

By: Matt Jakymiw

Matt Jakymiw — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 18:36:00 +0000

I feel the same way…..

By: kouponia

kouponia — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 15:44:00 +0000

ROFL!!! The image with all the browser plugins is priceless!!! My dad when his pc is not working properly, he always says that someone has messed up his “settings”, like it’s an old school radio or something!!

By: Jamie Pert

Jamie Pert — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 11:27:00 +0000

I can relate to a lot of this, my dad installed Picasa everytime he went to use it, he just didn’t know that he was installing it each time he used it! I have set my dad up with 3 or 4 email addresses in the past, however he assures me that there is a space in one of them, despite the fact no email addresses can have spaces… the list goes on…

By: Jj

Jj — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 04:37:00 +0000

I am most annoyed with the inability of parents/old people/tech clueless people to turn the beeping noises off their cameras, gadgets etc. You can tell if someone hasn’t a clue by how much noise their gadget makes!

By: A Steffens10

A Steffens10 — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 23:44:00 +0000

This made me laugh as im a female network analyst who’s family constantly does this and then brings me thei crap after the fact.

By: Robert Brauer

Robert Brauer — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 21:29:00 +0000

Brilliant … absolutely brilliant!!!

By: Winski

Winski — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 20:24:00 +0000

BEEN THERE….. DONE THAT….. And, it’s painful…. Oh well, at least I know now that some one else has also travelled this road…. Happy New Year…….

By: AnotherLostSon

AnotherLostSon — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 19:01:00 +0000

Hm, just yesterday my mom revealed that she has accepted a Nokia N9 as a gift. (I would have suggested an iPhone as an easier to use) She has also asked me if she should get a new plan (and SIM) or get the old one cut to fit into the new phone. She did not follow my advice to get a new SIM then and the boys at the shop have broken the old one. So I know exactly how you feel.

By: Djksimon

Djksimon — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 18:51:00 +0000

Philip reminds me of myself, except I’m not the son – I’m the parent. My own son is still using many vintage (what he calls “legacy”) software apps and utilities. I don’t know if Philip shares his tech snobbery with other relatives, friends and strangers – but I can’t help myself from expressing my disdain for other people’s preferred gadgets and software choices. Because of my age and gender people don’t expect me to have such opinions, let alone to be such a tech bigot. If I believed in New Years resolutions I would vow to treat the subject of tech like that of politics and religion – avoid at all costs and only join in converstaions about food and cooking. No, that won’t work, I’m a vegetarian as well.

By: Stupig

Stupig — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 17:48:00 +0000

Oh my god. I’m still using a CF card camera.

By: Will_chellam

Will_chellam — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 10:23:00 +0000

You had me up to buying a new camera…

I have an EOS350D, 2GB, compact flash, more than adequate for most peoples needs – 550 pics in max quality (not RAW). to ‘upgrade’ would cost me over £450 – simply not worth it – and what would happen to the old camera? is it worthless junk??

By: Avi

Avi — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 09:59:00 +0000

I feel your pain. My son was on a two month vacation, and I had to support both myself and my mother (on a Mac platform, which my oh so advanced son made her use). I’m so glad his vacation is over :)

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 04:04:00 +0000

Oh so funny. I’m betting most of the people who take the time to read these blogs/articles understand exactly what you’re feeling. I had to laugh out loud. I thank you for sharing your pain, and hope you don’t mind me laughing at it… because it hits home.

By: JayEff

JayEff — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:54:00 +0000

Just read your article – I know the feeling…. you are not alone

By: Philip Berne

Philip Berne — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:05:00 +0000

Hmm, not sure how this is taking my advice. My advice is to force your parents to upgrade everything they have, then get annoyed when they screw things up and don’t listen to you. Sorry, I don’t know anything about iCloud.

By: Jscw

Jscw — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 23:11:00 +0000

Replaced my mom’s PC with an iPad. Problem solved!

By: Jeff Froehle

Jeff Froehle — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 21:10:00 +0000

Read my post.

By: Jeff Froehle

Jeff Froehle — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 21:08:00 +0000

Typical of the ‘modern’? generation. Don’t worry, you’ll get to where are – someday.

By: Ark Pizarro

Ark Pizarro — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 20:13:00 +0000

You actually had her install windows on her own?!! You the man!!

By: Ark Pizarro

Ark Pizarro — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 20:10:00 +0000

Great Post!! I Laughed and felt as if it was I who was writing. My mom actually blames me for her difficulty with her PC because I’ve always fixed things and never let her “grow” as a PC user. Mind you I live 1500 miles away and go home about 2-3 times per year. Ultimate parent solution — buy them a mac!!

By: Matthew Bluestein

Matthew Bluestein — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 19:16:00 +0000

Philip, I am taking your advice and asking for your tech advice. If you see this I am having some troubles with iCloud, maybe you could help me out?

By: David Breakey

David Breakey — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 17:59:00 +0000

Seriously? Switch them to Linux (Ubuntu is probably the best choice here). Software installation is managed by a centralized architecture (so zero need to have a dozen “installers” running in the background 24/7), plus you have remote access options up the wazoo, so stuff can be quickly and quietly fixed (SSH, GUI options, etc). And it’s truly multi-user, so you can fix it without forcing them to log out.

Pretty much any software in Windows has something equivalent in Linux (and in many cases, the *same* software): Firefox? Chrome? Available on both. Office suite? Try LibreOffice, which looks and works an awful lot like Office 2003. Outlook (Full/Express/fill in the blank)? Thunderbird (which is better anyway). Skype? Available on both, although it’s a 2nd-class citizen on Linux.

The *real* problem with Linux is that there’s so much choice; it can be intimidating.

And if there’s stuff they *need* to run that is only available in Windows, Wine (a Windows API “sandbox”) is an excellent starting point. Not necessarily *easy* though …

Doesn’t hurt that 99% of all software for Linux is free. Legally. Including Linux itself.

If you decide to try it, make sure to test it out using the Live CD option *first*; that way, you can “test-drive” it without actually installing it first.

Of course, this all assumes you’re already Linux-proficient … if not … um … switch to Mac?

Sorry; I’ll step down from my soapbox now… ahem.

By: Craig Froehle

Craig Froehle — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 17:19:00 +0000

I did the same thing with the few I used to get Windows PC troubleshooting calls on, but they still called me about their Macs…now, however, I can honestly say, “I don’t know” and they’ve started leaving me alone.

By: Craig Froehle

Craig Froehle — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 17:18:00 +0000

A MOST excellent article, Philip! Going to share this with everyone in my family right now. Or, on second thought, they probably can’t handle the truth.

By: EUOS

EUOS — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 17:05:00 +0000

That was awesome.

By: Chris Davies

Chris Davies — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 16:40:00 +0000

Very true! Apart from when the call is “we can’t connect to the internet, is the internet broken?”

By: Ronnie McBride

Ronnie McBride — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 16:03:00 +0000

This was a gem of a read. I was in hysterics reading this. You hit so many common points here that I too now feel like a pretentious schmuck. Bravo my friend! and Happy new year I will be re-posting this to Facebook twitter neither one will my parents ever read but maybe one of their more advance and astute friends may read it back to them off their IPad or Kindle or something lol

By: Winfieldsg

Winfieldsg — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 15:26:00 +0000

Your parents are monsters

By: Dave Cook

Dave Cook — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 14:27:00 +0000

I used to have a network of about 15 people that called me for support. One by one I switched them all to Mac’s. Now I don’t get phone calls anymore :(

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 12:46:00 +0000

My father-in-law installed Winamp every time he wanted to play a song. He kept clicking on the installer on his desktop instead of the shortcut. He also filled up his hard drive till it has .001% free. I spent 30 minutes on the phone trying to explain to my mom how to zip all of her pictures into one file before sending them to me. My most epic call was when I spent 6 hours on the phone with my mom explaining how to install Windows XP from scratch. I would you give more details than that but honestly I have blocked out most of it in an effort to keep my sanity.

By: deonjaylen

deonjaylen — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 10:33:00 +0000

thats a really good post . most of the people do relate themselves with this post.

By: Mufaddal Cochinwala

Mufaddal Cochinwala — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 09:25:00 +0000

I understand times when Parents don’t listen. But it’s like riding an aeroplane when they don’t know how to drive the car. So be patient. Parents are the precious gift you ever had. You don’t know how they stayed calm when you in your childhood was dumb. We never understand the generation gap. But we have to understand, if they(Parents) were not there, we would not be what we are.

By: Robert Ward

Robert Ward — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 08:31:00 +0000

Sure, but he’s very clearly talking about consumer style point & shoot cameras. If his dad is anything like my step-dad, he has $3,000 worth of camera gear sitting in the closet wasted while he uses a $150 Kodak for nearly everything.