Too lazy or too stupid?

[Ady1Participant @ady1]

Modern life is much faster nowadays and people have been conditioned to accept bite sized inputs because there is so much alternative distracting stimulus

TV. Radio. Multiple Internet distractions.

If you look at a single copy of the Victorian 'The Engineer' there's barely a picture and its got a ton of reading

The Model Engineer used to be out weekly with buckets of info

Each of those publications would have what? 20 30 40 50 people working full time on the publications output

So people now grow up with a skimming mentality which is far less focussed

The most obvious change we all see today is actually all around us

How many of us in here right now spend our day glued to a mobile phone screen, or have a compulsion to look at those things for any length of time?

I just find them an annoying occasional use item

Edited By Ady1 on 04/03/2022 10:59:20

[Martin WParticipant @martinw]

What about the people for whom reading is extremely difficult to near impossible and have turned to a practical hobby like engineering/carpentry/art because they are good with their hands and can visualise the solution to a problem. Are they to be marginalised/excluded because they ask what appears to be a basic question. I have a very good friend who has severe reading difficulties where the letters of the words, after a few minutes of looking at a page of text, start to move around. He describes it like seeing 'Ants crawling all over the page', how many of us would then be prepared to try to read a book let alone one with tables and charts in it. When I email/message him my emails are always kept short and to the point.

So what does he do for a living, runs his own company of course and he is highly intelligent, excellent ideas person, superb sense of humour, brilliant at wood working. Yes he might ask the odd basic question but not because he is lazy or just wants a quick solution.

So perhaps those of us who can read and enjoy doing so should think carefully before being critical of the questions posed by others.

Martin

[Former MemberParticipant @formermember12892]

[This posting has been removed]

[WearyParticipant @weary]

Dave (Silly Old Duffer),

Referring to your previous post on book-sales sudden decline in 2012:

Physical book-sales reductions in 2012/13 were almost compensated for by increases in e-book sales. Yep, I googled the question to find the answer!

Regards,

Phil.

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

But what bugs me is when you send a link to the manual they come back "oh gosh, didn't know that was there"!

[OldironParticipant @oldiron]

Posted by Martin W on 04/03/2022 11:01:57:

What about the people for whom reading is extremely difficult to near impossible and have turned to a practical hobby like engineering/carpentry/art because they are good with their hands and can visualise the solution to a problem. Are they to be marginalised/excluded because they ask what appears to be a basic question.

So perhaps those of us who can read and enjoy doing so should think carefully before being critical of the questions posed by others.

Martin

Not at all Martin. I will say though that it may help others on the forum to formulate their responces in a more fitting or better way if they knew that that person had a problem. Maybe some are too proud to mention it but I hope they would feel able to do so on this forum without getting any negative comments.

I myself do not have great sight anymore and also have great difficulty distinguishing between spoken word & music on video's. The closed captions do not really help as by the time I read them the point has past. I very often comment on Y/T videos about this problem but to this day have not seen any lowering of background music sound levels. Most seem to have the attitude "xuxk you" this is my channel and I understand what is going on ok. So what do I do ? not watch any tv or web videos ?.

regards

[Chris MateParticipant @chrismate31303]

Sometimes things stay the same, sometimes opinions change over time due to experience, where experience may be area dependant as well.
I thought of this before, why bother to join any forum and ask questions, just view a video(s), read a book, a manual, or google it.

In short, I believe if you unsure about something after reading, asking a question in current time, always reveals interesting answers from different angles, time periods, latest take on things. Some of the answers may trigger new thoughts ideas.

Sometimes something somebody has said/reply was all you need to really understand something, that was not that clear from a book, manual or google or previous forum replies.

I have seen over years if everything function ok, you can read and theorise to no end, till you suddenly faced with a problem that can not easily been resolved, its then when you need to start thinking forward step by step and identifying all steps in time. In work I always welcomed questions, because it made me change the answers/explanations slightly to make it more understandable, which obviously the courses people attended did not do properly.

So you still have to have an open mind about any info received.

[Anonymous]

Posted by JasonB on 04/03/2022 07:37:46:

I'm sure you could google how to unsubscribe to e-mail notifications from that source

Often not the best way since such sources frequently ignore unsubscribes and it tells them that your address is good. They then peddle it to other spam-lists.

However …. Gmail's spam filter is rather good. If you go to your Gmail account on the website, select one of the messages and report it as spam, similar messages should be spam-trapped from then on.

[Peter G. ShawParticipant @peterg-shaw75338]

re e-mails etc.

I get very few spam emails. I don't know why, and no, I don't want them. I do use the unsubscribe link for sources I have unwittingly or wittingly (is there such a word?) signed up for and these do seem to work. Another thing I have done is to use reasonably long complicated email addresses – this following an incident many years ago when one particularly email address I used attracted all the spam under the sun.

For those emails that are spam, in general I delete them immediately, and I do wonder if this may be part of the reason why I don't get many.

Another thing that I did was to set up filters to divert all messages containing a particular phrase, you know the ones – I am a prince in bongo-bongo land and …….etc. Again, I don't now seem to get many of these. In fact, a quick look shows that currently I have three message phrases for automatic deletion whereas in past times I have had around a dozen or more.

So, for me, email spam isn't really a problem.

In respect of reading/looking up bits of information, there is a problem, I find, in actually formulating the correct choice of words to enable the search engines to find whatever it is that you are looking for. Perhaps this is one of the reason people ask what seem to be basic questions.

Peter G. Shaw

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Posted by Peter G. Shaw on 05/03/2022 11:02:02:

re e-mails etc.

I get very few spam emails. I don't know why…

For those emails that are spam, in general I delete them immediately, and I do wonder if this may be part of the reason why I don't get many.

Another thing that I did was to set up filters to divert all messages containing a particular phrase … a quick look shows that currently I have three message phrases for automatic deletion whereas in past times I have had around a dozen or more.

So, for me, email spam isn't really a problem.

…

Peter G. Shaw

 

The answer lies in a mixture of email hygiene and good luck! Peter is getting spam but has set up an effective block.

Deleting spam makes no difference; ignoring them might.

Having an obfuscated email address helps because address generators are likely to guess them.

Important to avoid sharing email addresses if at all possible and to unsubscribe and refuse permission to share whenever possible. Failing to read the small-print is lazy and stupid!

How effective your Internet Service Provider is makes a big difference. A colleague has the skills and interest needed to set up his own mail server and was amazed by the amount of crud he was being sent. ISP mail-servers are better protected. Large quantities of spam are blocked by ISPs before it gets into your mailbox, and their effectiveness varies. Difficult to find out how they're performing at the moment, but you might guess that expensive ISPs do much more than bargain basement suppliers. Last time I saw a survey, about 5 years ago, BT were best for behind the scenes anti-spam. I don't know what the current state of play is.

I get spam due to a friend-of-a-friends over confident attitude to web security. He's subscribed to several dodgy websites who send him off-colour jokes by email. In his innocence, he forwards them to all his mates, one of whom forwarded a copy to me. Problem is the original email used the blind copy facility to report back the email address of everyone contacted: now I get spam from Vietnam. Sad thing is the friend of a friend persists despite being asked to stop: he can't comprehend the harm. As he doesn't understand how it's done, no way could Johnny Foreigner be smart enough to pull a fast one. With friends like him, who needs enemies!

Dave

 

Edited By SillyOldDuffer on 05/03/2022 13:10:08

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by SillyOldDuffer on 05/03/2022 13:07:56:

[…]

Important to avoid sharing email addresses if at all possible and to unsubscribe and refuse permission to share whenever possible. Failing to read the small-print is lazy and stupid!

[…]

.

A quick question, Dave … inviting a potentially long answer :

How ‘safe’ is the unsubscribe process ?

… might it sometimes be just another channel for validating an eMail address ?

MichaelG.

[Jouke van der VeenParticipant @joukevanderveen72935]

In Dutch we say: “liever lui dan moe” or in Engish: rather lazy than tired”. 😉

[Frances IoMParticipant @francesiom58905]

my email address has been on the web for over 20years – I soon afterwards moved to ‘hiding’ it as a jpg but that made little difference to spam due to harvested emails – I moved to a commercial spam filter some years later which removed the bulk but over the last couple of years have seen very little spam – I suspect not being on Farce book is a key reason for this – the only consistent source appears to be China gleaned I suspect from a local shop who supplied a small replacement display from a chinese supplier.

Edited By Frances IoM on 05/03/2022 13:50:22

[noel shelleyParticipant @noelshelley55608]

Meer lui dan moe ! Noel.

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Posted by Michael Gilligan on 05/03/2022 13:26:48:

Posted by SillyOldDuffer on 05/03/2022 13:07:56:

[…]

Important to avoid sharing email addresses if at all possible and to unsubscribe and refuse permission to share whenever possible. Failing to read the small-print is lazy and stupid!

[…]

.

…

How ‘safe’ is the unsubscribe process ?

… might it sometimes be just another channel for validating an eMail address ?

MichaelG.

Not very! Reputable companies honour it, and are unlikely to pass information on to third-parties, who might turn out to be venal or careless.

Anything can happen if you give your email and other information to a dishonest website!

Dave

[larry phelan 1Participant @larryphelan1]

Thinking about Quora, I never knew there were so many stupid people in the World !

The kind of "Questions" asked there are beyond believe, no need to ask where most of them come from !

How to boil an egg ?, yes this would be quite normal. How to clean a shower ?, again quite normal !

How to walk a dog ?, cut the grass, ect,ect ?

No wonder people have a "Drink Problem"

My Granny used to say, "When those people went to America, years ago, the sea trip did them no good ", Seems like she was right !

[Iain DownsParticipant @iaindowns78295]

Two points on this. Firstly, I am a prolific reader – some 20 – 30 books a month. almost entirely 'pulp' sci fi and fantasy and very nearly all from kindle unlimited. So I'm paying 8 quid a month for two dozen books. I could not afford to buy them! My point here is that I think there is likely to be more reading rather than less as the internet makes books more accessible (how many times have I got to 2am, finished a book and thought, 'hmm, should I download the next in the series'.

I don't read much fact and will google. However, I want to defend silly questions. Sometimes you can find LOADS of information but can't put it together. For example, I've spent today trying to work out thread wires. Pitch diameter was a bit of a new thing and I struggled to work out from that how deep my thread was. If I'd asked the question in the forum I would have had plenty of answers (not necessarily all the same…) and my head would hurt less.

Also, and this is something which I find very frustrating, quite often you can't find something because you don't have the right words. Sometimes the silly question is only silly to experts – Ignoramouses like me may find it quite intelligent!

A related frustration (I think it's related) is that I have not infrequently found some really good information on the Internet which tells me exactly what I want, but when I come to look for it again, I simply cannot find it. (I think it has a relative that hides emails from me).

Iain

[egaParticipant @ega]

This Old Tony has a good YouTube video on thread wires.

[Chris MateParticipant @chrismate31303]

Reading a manual:
Note both my larthe and mill, the manual is pretty useless and difficult to see properly, poor printing(China).

Cannon:Perfect manuals
I remember once reading the small manual of my Canon 70-200IS lense after I experienced plenty out of focus/movement where the parts should be still but like panning a propeller plane, the propeller must show movement but the plane's body should come out well.

So as I started reading the manual I found a place where the manufacturer desribe that if you pan/follow moving objects horizontally, you should disable the horizotal axis stabilization, which in this case is in the lense not the camera. The camera/lense tries to stabilise the moving picture you are actually panning horizontally..
-Rembering that either way is important.

Now:I just wonders if the same apply to youtrube videos, because I saw a lot if the creator pan horizontally the picture frames jerks, wonder what their manuals say-?

[Bob Unitt 1Participant @bobunitt1]

Posted by Iain Downs on 05/03/2022 17:25:46:

Two points on this. Firstly, I am a prolific reader – some 20 – 30 books a month. almost entirely 'pulp' sci fi and fantasy and very nearly all from kindle unlimited. So I'm paying 8 quid a month for two dozen books. I could not afford to buy them!

Iain

I'm the same, except not quite so many books a month (10-ish). Another consideration is the space to store them all – I buy reference and technical information in physical-book form (I currently have about 10 yards of bookshelf in use for engineering, woodworking, model-making and other 'technical' books), if I added the space needed for a further 10 fiction books a month I'd soon have no room in which to live. I used to take a couple of tea-chests of books to the second-hand bookshop every year when I was younger, most of the money received usually being spent on more books before I left !

A further consideration is ecological – an e-book doesn't require trees to be felled and waste-products to be recycled, it just uses a (very small) amount of electricity.

I too have trouble finding the right words to use as search terms sometimes, far easier to ask real people who might know what I'm talking about, rather than an algorithm written by someone else with a completely different mind-set.

[Iain DownsParticipant @iaindowns78295]

On Storage – I ended up with about 7000 paperbacks, most of which were mouldering in my garage (this before hobby machining – there would be no room). About 1000 of those got eaten (not by me).

The end result was that I scanned them in to my PC – at least about 4000 of them. the remaining 2000 I decided I was very unlikely to read again so got shipped to charity shops.

On technical books. I'm kind of lucky in that my profession is software. Books on software generally have a limited life span (Device Drivers for Windows 3.1 anybody?), So I have able to clear out quite frequently. I have about 5 yards left (most of which I will never open due to both them and me becoming slowly obsolete).

Iain

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