The horrid tech-vocabulary of people who are not tech-savvy

[Dexiro]

A lot of people are saying the Hard-drive isn't the memory of the computer and only the RAM is.
I thought they were both memory, one primary and one secondary.

I just call them by their hardware, "I have an 80gb hard-drive and 1gb ram".

 

[Eerors]

My mum doesn't know how to work anything new. She just asks my dad to do it. He's the technologically competent one in the house.

My mother thinks that "install" is the keyword for everything.

"Hey Thor, Could you help me install some more songs on my iPod?"

"Sure mom."

Your name is Thor?!

That. Is. Amazing!
I think your parents are completely underusing your abilities. Next time she asks say, "Not now, I have some pillagin' to do." Then go steal yourself a wife.

I bet you get that all the time

 

[GrinningManiac]

My Gran dosen't have a computer, and my Grandma is the most technologically aware granny on the planet

...
But you just said that she doesn't have one.

Funnily enough, I have two grandmothers, like most human beings

 

[Yureina]

I guess I should be grateful that I have not run into people like this. Living (basically) alone at home and only interacting with crazy internet people or college students my age prevents me from running into these... strange creatures that do not understand the internet.

 

[Sebenko]

A lot of people are saying the Hard-drive isn't the memory of the computer and only the RAM is.
I thought they were both memory, one primary and one secondary.

I just call them by their hardware, "I have an 80gb hard-drive and 1gb ram".

Tell that to the TV ads. It's always memory on ads, which I think should be changed, since most people will associate that with the disk space.

I always call it RAM and HD to be sure.

 

[Nalgas D. Lemur]

I have surprisingly little of that to deal with in my family. My dad, despite being in his 60s and a retired accounting professor, has been able to install his own RAM and hard drives since almost 20 years ago

I think we found a computer retard here on our forums.....

Why, was installing RAM and hard drives an unusual thing in the 90's?

because it is not a great achievement to install components like these into the hardware of your computer

If you've grown up with a computer around and do things like that all the time, no, it's not at all a big deal. You may have noticed all the old people being talked about in this thread who don't even know what RAM or hard drives are, though. My dad was born around the same time electronic computers were first invented, and home computers didn't even exist until well after he'd finished school, so I'd say he's been doing alright for an old dog learning new tricks. Saves me from doing a lot of family tech support crap, at least, since I only have to deal with it when something's actually wrong. The people in my family who do qualify for this thread fortunately all live hundreds to thousands of miles away. Heh.

 

[poet_lawreate]

The first time my mam saw me open up the computer case, she was terrified. She didn't think you could touch any of it.

Other gems:
'How do you install the Twitter?'
'Is Firefox the same internet as Internet Explorer?'

 

[LiftYourSkinnyFists]

A 4GB HDD and a Terra of RAM ftw amiright?

i think you got those backwards.. who has only 4 gigs of storage and 1024 gigs of memory

A 4GB HDD and a Terra of RAM ftw amiright?

i think you got those backwards.. who has only 4 gigs of storage and 1024 gigs of memory

You really missed that joke.

See why I love it?

 

[Necator15]

Not so much tech vocabulary, but I remember waiting to talk to my boss at the hotel I work at, and hearing hear have a discussion with some woman who was explaining that computers should be shutdown or put to sleep because, like humans, they get tired.

 

[CuddlyCombine]

I don't understand how this is so puzzling to people. Almost all of the technology we live with has come into play in the last century, with most of it originating from the last two decades. That's a very, very small amount of time. Expecting people who aren't intricately tied to it to become completely familiar with the terminology accompanying it is ridiculous.

I know that this only applies to some people, but, dear some people; please stop trying to be elitist. Otherwise I'll have to get some buddies in here to start coaching people on the basics of python. Oh, and we'll sigh explosively every time you ask what a switch is.

 

[sabbat]

What do you mean? I always unload the quantom harmonisor into the thingy projection ma-jig, all at the same time as downloading the wig-wam off a woofing engine.

No problems there. Makes complete sense. Why, Just yesterday I was doing just that.

 

[cheese_wizington]

My mum doesn't know how to work anything new. She just asks my dad to do it. He's the technologically competent one in the house.

My mother thinks that "install" is the keyword for everything.

"Hey Thor, Could you help me install some more songs on my iPod?"

"Sure mom."

Your name is Thor?!

That. Is. Amazing!
I think your parents are completely underusing your abilities. Next time she asks say, "Not now, I have some pillagin' to do." Then go steal yourself a wife.

I bet you get that all the time

I do get it a lot, but it's never as intelligent a response.

Usually, it goes something like, "Hey did u no dat liek thor is a lightning god or summin'?"

Then I respond with, "No, he's a thunder god."

 

[superbatranger]

What do you mean? I always unload the quantom harmonisor into the thingy projection ma-jig, all at the same time as downloading the wig-wam off a woofing engine.

Oh My God! You can't do that you will overload the flux capacitor!

No!! That only happens when you overdigitalize the magnetic positron colliding coils! I swear, people need to understand the difference between magnetic neutron colliding coils and magnetic positron colliding coils. You only use the former when you want to unload the internets to a Ultimatum Swishy Blocker drive. Don't people remember that Y2K was almost caused by that kid who wanted to loop his flux capacitor to a 15 year old magnetic positron colliding coil?

 

[Koeryn]

I am technologically retarded. Unless that technology is firearms, then I can at least pull basic maintenance on it no matter what ya hand me.*


*Never pulled maintenance on machine guns or gatling cannons

 

[londelen]

I remember when people called any game system "the dang Nintendo"

 

[Ghost]

"Delete the email when you're done with it so it doesn't fill up the memory". Even better, the computer has 450gb of 'memory' left.

 

[JEBWrench]

I say we encourage that, rather then discourage that. Should the name get to the point it is more common then MP3 player, or media player, then Apple will lose the trademark on iPod, and I would really like to see that happen.

Think of terms like Band-Aid, Vasoline, Aspirin, E-mail, Thermos, Netbook, and Escalator. All brand names that where (and a few still are in other countries) trademarked, but have become generic terms for the product.

I approve this message.

Has anyone here ever photostatted photocopied Xeroxed a facial tissue Kleenex?

 

[SilkySkyKitten]

My grandma (on my mom's side) has a tendancy to call every and any portable gaming device a "DS", a recent example being when I was playing Gran Turismo on my PSP at a restaraunt she asked me what I was playing on my "DS".

Other than that, though, my family is pretty good at not making horrible attempts at high-tech vocabulary. That, and I amazingly haven't come across too many cases of people calling MP3 players "Ipods" or other horrid stories I've read so far.