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this post was submitted on 13 Sep 2023
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So we have two options:
A 52 year old federal judge is somehow tech illiterate in a way that would imply they have absolutely no idea about the fundamentals of modern technology.
A federal judge is asking a large number of extremely basic questions to get their answers on official records so that the cases parameters are clearly defined. He is taking extra care because there's not a lot of direct precedent on these issues.
I'm heavily leaning towards number 2 here. The internet likes to pretend everyone over the age of 40 has no idea how a computer works. The year is 2023. A middle-aged person today was fairly young when computers started to be incorporated into all aspects of society and is well versed in computer literacy. In some ways they are actually much more tech literate than the younger generations. It's almost certain that he knows the difference between Firefox and Google.
I'm a 53 year old IT person, and I'm leaning towards 1. The level of technology incompetence in the general public is astounding. My wife only knows "Have you tried turning it off and back on again?" And that pretty much makes her a member of the help desk at her job.
My mom uses a computer at her job but confuses the terms computer, internet, browser and email on a regular basis. I wonder what would happen if I restarted the internet as she tells me to sometimes. I could install Linux and she wouldn't tell.
Still better than her father, who had her operate a casette player for him when she was 2.
I always cringe in horror as both my parents still double click links on the internet.
Mine are not that old but they absolutely need access to assistance every day. Mom cannot turn the computer off if anything other than “Shutdown” was previously chosen in that awful Windows dialog. Dad fell for a basic “unclaimed delivery” phishing email even though he found it in the Spam folder that has an explicit warning. Fortunately, his gut told him something was fishy and he told me right away, and we suspended his card before it was abused.
What's wrong with double click?
On a link? Everything.
I still don't understand. IIRC, it's click once to select, click twice to open. Why should hyperlinks be different?
Or maybe you mean machine gun clicking until the page loads, that's, eh, wrong, yes.
Links only need single clicks. Always have.
Icons on the desktop, or files in a listview need a double click to open, because single clicking just selects them.
Unless you are using something with modern UI, in that case even folders are single click to open.
I think it is the idea of clicking some random link on the internet and not the act of double clicking itself. It caught me for a second too.
Boy, do I understand the cringe.
I always described these users as "unable to distinguish between an icon an a button". Modern Windows UIs don't make it easier, though.
Works with grandparents. They don't even suspect they have Gentoo on their computer.
The law is nuanced out the ass. I sit through depositions every day, and terms of art are a plague, and you can say something, but it can be interpreted differently because in such and such a field it's a term of art, etc. That's my hope.
I am fully on board with we need more judges, we need younger judges. But I don't think that's because they're incapable of learning. In fact, I think there's be value to someone going in blind, being given all the facts, and making their determination that way. It just sucks that something we value so highly can be determined based on the presentation of counsel.
It's always amazed me of the learning gap.. we learned how to get stuff working by hacking config.sys and our peers can it seems barely spell computer.
It's even worse as people get younger, even though it shouldn't be. How computers work should be in peoples DNA by now, but they still think you've deleted IE if you hide the icon..
Agreed. If it has a positive effect as in 2, I'm all for it, but trusting that a non-technical user really know what's going on with his computer is a serious gamble.
Next step: "Is it even powered?"
To be Dennis Ritchie was born in 40-ies. He would be 80 y.o. if he didn't die in 2013. And he is most literate person on this planet.