[CLUE-Talk] The Microsoft penalty that isn't - Tech News - CNET.com

[BOF]

Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier wrote:

>It reminds me of a short video clip I used when I taught an intro to computers course - it was a movie reel where a woman was standing
>in front of a huge rotary phone and was explaining in great detail the concept of dialing the phone. Imagine needing to be told how to
>use a phone! I suppose in the early days of phones there were people who felt they were horribly complicated and beyond their comprehension... so there's hope that kids will be just as comfortable with computers as everyone is with phones.
>
It's easy to us now to think about rotary phones as being SO, SO simple, 
but no so long ago (1998), my Father had to be told what the "pound key" 
on a phone was. Luddite that he was, he had finally bought another phone 
with buttons, not a dial on it. (To be kinder, he never had need for 
upgrading, as the one phone for the one phone jack that he had worked 
just fine and he saw no reason just to rush out and buy a newer one. I'm 
getting that way with computers, and have been that way with software 
for some time now.)

Remember at the time when rotary dial phones came out, the customary way 
of connecting to another phone number was to pick up the phone and ring 
the operator, who would move a jack to the number and ring it.  So this 
"dial-it-yourself" business was an entirely new concept for many people.

As further evidence of how complicated technology can be to the 
"ordinary man", what is the percentage of VCR owners whose machines 
flash the time as "12:00     12:00     12:00"? One estimate I read had 
it as high as 50%.

For that matter, look at the last election, where pushing the little 
pieces of paper out of a ballot seemed beyond many people.

BOF