Working in the kitchen, I heard Hunky Husband guffawing in his basement den, so I had to go ask him why he was laughing. He showed me an item in a newsletter that he was reading. It illustrated the different ways in which various people use language - particularly when one of the people is young, the other old. I've changed the lead-in, for personal reasons, but not the quote. It sounds like something that HH would have told his troops 40 years ago.
After an aide answered a question, the questioner shook his head and said, “Pick up your phone, call your mother, read her what you just told me” ... “If she understands, we can keep talking.”
This was a lot funnier than what had happened about an hour, previously. I happened to go downstairs for something and heard beeps and siren noises coming from HH's den. He had somehow come upon a scam: the one that displays and announces messages to the effect that a bad thing on your computer is going to bring down the internet unless you call the given phone number RIGHT NOW! HH was trying to figure out what to do - difficult for anyone to do with all the bells, whistles, and flashing images. While he went into the laundry room to iron his weeks' worth of shirts, I shut down his machine and cleaned it up. Not that it will help, but I did change a couple of his security settings while I was at it.
I imagine bells and whistles would really upset HH, as much as he dislikes noises anyway. Add the flashing lights, and that would be downright disorientating for him.
I keep my speakers off unless there is something I specifically want to hear, which is rare.
Posted by: bogie | January 24, 2021 at 04:22 AM
Bogie--HH does most of his internet stuff on his phone. He's like I imagine a teen-ager to be, always looking at his phone. I'll check with him to see how he would feel to have his computer speakers off; but, with his short-term memory loss, he might not be able to think how to turn them back on. I go by fits and starts, myself. Sometimes I keep them off...sometimes, not. I do keep them fairly low unless there is something that I actually want to hear.
Posted by: Cop Car | January 24, 2021 at 09:19 AM
I like that idea of running by a person, who is perhaps not real tech savvy, some information explanations to test how well a message is understood. Tech writers, or those who write operation manuals, should have to do that before unleashing them on their product purchasers. I think I put my son’s written communication skills to the test when I seek his help resolving computer issues I encounter. I’m probably the mother whose successful interpretation of his directions tells him how clearly he has written his instructions — may actually help him when he started his business. Fortunately for me, he has the patience of Job and tolerates my frustrated outbursts when I contact him in desperation.
Posted by: Joared | January 26, 2021 at 09:53 PM
Joared--You provide(d) your son valuable input. I collaborated with tech writers at Cessna to assure that our service manuals/bulletins said what they needed to say - often bringing in a mechanic or test pilot to assure that our terminology was correct. In later years, the move was toward simplified English - on which task force I served. The hardest time I ever had was in co-authoring a tech paper when I was in Florida. The illustrators didn't seem to understand what a sine wave was supposed to look. Of course, they were in McLean Virginia and this was before the internet.
Your son and our daughter (Bogie) must display the patience of Job when doing IT. Otherwise, idiots like me would drive them around the bend.
Posted by: Cop Car | January 27, 2021 at 08:25 AM