person has with computer maintenance. What I am asking is, do you think the general population know how to do a disk defrag or pull apart their PC and clean everyting out properly (dust bunnies) remove a heat sink or fan to clean them.
I know the newer generation of kids and young adults are pretty hip. I would say 14-25, but what about the generation above. 25-65 we’ll say.
Do people want to be bothered with maintenance? I think taking care of a computer is like taking care of a car, you have to do things to them everynow and then. Do you think people do it?
Curious!!!!
A: No way, i am one of the youngest in my large office and every day i am shocked with some of the computer questions i get. Even my friends that are my age ask these questions of, “what is defragmenting” and “why is my computer slow.” I have rebuilt and cleaned up so many of my friends computers. The only reason i know is because my dad is good at this stuff and showed me once, so i’m not an idiot.
A: “I know the newer generation of kids and young adults are pretty hip. I would say 14-25, but what about the generation above. 25-65 we’ll say.”
Negative. Most people I meet regardless of age do not know the basics of computer maintenance. Being able to play games on a computer does not make you an expert.
You are right, a computer is kind of like a car, it needs a tuneup every now and again, but like a car most people only know how to dive it, having no clue about what is under the hood
A: A lot of people do not know or care about computer maintenance nor should they really need to. It’s nothing to do with age either – there are people who are more technology orientated than others in every generation. Because younger people have ipods, iphones and every other sort of igadget may mean they are more familiar with the devices but that doesn’t mean they even know how they work, let alone know how to take them apart without destroying them.
It’s nice to have a “dust bunny” free machine but computers will operate for years in horrible, hot, dusty condtions with little or no maintenance. To give a simple example, I run a couple of web servers down in my basement – “The servers in the cellar” – the last time they were rebooted was nearly 11 months ago. I’m thinking of updating the OS on them so last week I went down to look at them – the first time in around two years – and had to clean the cobwebs from around and inside them. In fact, the only real maintenance I do to them is to check the acid levels in the marine batteries I use as power backup every couple of months. That’s nothing compared to some computers I’ve seen in industrial settings though. Like my servers, they are all mostly dedicated use machines so don’t get messed up with software that doesn’t work properly, viruses, malware and assorted rubbish that general use computers do.
Another little story, this goes back to the age thing. My first computer program was written when I was at school – and we didn’t have one single computer in the place. At the time no school, that I know of, in the city did. The programs were written on punch cards and run through a mainframe at the local university.
If you ask around you’ll find a lot of people who started off in computers the same way I did. My first personal computer cost an arm and a leg, had no hard drive, 640Kb RAM, a 8086 processor running at 8MHz and ran MS DOS v3.2 on a 5.25″ floppy disk. The first hard drive I bought for it was 32Mb and cost more than the entire computer did. See http://www.old-computers.com/MUSEUM/comp…
That Amstrad was still working when I moved house (in fact I emmigrated otherwise I’d probably still have it) and left it behind in 2001 – which meant it had lasted 15 years – even though by then the only thing it could run properly was the original software – and QuickBasic and A86 Assembler which had set me on my path to programming as a career.
Having said all that, general use computers do need regular maintenance to keep them running properly and I find I spend quite a bit of time doing things to friends computers – and charging everyone else – that they should know how to do for themselves. I’m always amazed at how little many people, of whatever age, know about computers but I’ve been around them for a very long time – you could say we’ve grown up together
A: The generation above 25 to 65 was the generation that designed and built them! What do YOU think? From what I see, 70 percent of the public at ANY age shouldnt be looking at them let alone using them. As far as young peep, I’m surprised they even know how to turn them on considering they cant even spell.
A: negative ghost rider, the pattern is full — Top Gun
A: no, everyone i know has a computer and not one of them clean them or keep up with the maintenance of them. For that matter i don’t think they even know how!
A: I’m young and I know how to use a computer very well, actually. I got a brand new computer in 2005 and it’s been virus-free until Saturday, ugh :/ Read my question again, I added some details
