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Originally Posted by mntlblok
Warning: stream of consciousness posting. OrangeBlossumBaby and Blueblaze have lots of Bs and Ls and orange and blue are complementary colors which always reminds me of Thunderball which was out when the 47 year coder wifey and I learned that color fact together in 7th grade. We got together at our 25th high school reunion. :-) It's quite the luxury to be able to run the various points made in this thread by her, as my tech savvy is extremely limited (niche?), though I'm learning a fair bit in this thread. Fascinating to see that so many old farts here have come to know so much about tech. Had coincidentally read through the Wikipedia entry on Edward R. Murrow last evening. There have been some changes since that era, though I do (barely) remember seeing him on TV. BTW, got down *that* rabbit hole via reading up on King Edward VIII, about whom I had also known very close to nothing. No fan of "royalty", BTW.
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I don't know why you're surprised about tech savvy seniors. The "father" of the Personal Computer, Ed Roberts, would have been 82 years old this year if he hadn't died in 2010.
The only reason I'm not a certified Microsoft Software Professional was I was too lazy to take the test. I also took BASIC computer programming in high school in 1978, then took Visual BASIC and C++ and then advanced VB and C++ somewhere around 2005. I also was certified as a CompTIA A+ bench tech (qualified computer repair person who had to actually take a course and pass two tests to get a certification). While I can't deal with MAC products at all, and don't like them, at all, and I don't know my way under the hood of a laptop of any type, I can take a desktop computer apart, identify most of the things inside it, reseat a heat sink, and put the machine back together again.
People who say they're "too old" to learn how to use a computer are simply incorrect. Age has nothing to do with your ability to learn the computer. Three possible reasons to not learn: 1) mental disability, 2) physical limitations** 3) stubbornness.
**physical disability doesn't really stop people from using computers. I had a friend with ALS, who was 100% physically disabled other than his eyesight and hearing. He couldn't move his head, but he could move his eyes. He had machines breathing for him, eating for him, and expelling waste for him. He used a computer to communicate via a specialized device placed on the surface of his forehead, similar looking to a bindi dot that married Hindu women have. It was hooked up to eye-tracker software, and a monitor hung over his hospital bed. Tucker was an amazing digital artist. He passed away a couple of years ago but he was paralyzed fully for over 10 years, and continued to communicate daily from his home hospital setup, until a week before he died.