Technology…. Where do you stand?

[Cathunter]

Some time in the past, I was pretty much under the impression that most geocachers were from the techno-geek computer savy splice of the American pie. Over the past several months I have met many cachers who are just the opposite. Some barely even knew enough to make it to the geocaching.com website, much less post on the WGA forums.

I guess I fall into the first category. My PC’s and internet connection runs 24/7. I communicate by e-mail more than telephone. (2 phone calls received this week vs. 36 e-mails.) I balance my checkbook, read the news, watch the weather forcast, and pay all my bills online. Manually enter gps coordinates? I did that for the first day or two I ever geocached. Since then, I upload pocket queries and update them regularly. Paper cache pages? No thanks, that’s what a PDA is for. Paper maps? What for when it all fits in my trusty gps unit? I also watch several websites that I check for updates more than once a day, including this one, of course. I use a PC at work very little, but I have had one of my own for nearly 20 years, and could not imagine anything different.

All this makes me wonder how the spectrum is spread across our members here?

Where do you fit into the techno-world?

[Mama Fishcacher]

Very interesting question!

I feel I’m pretty *average* when it comes to technology. I can find my way around the internet and my computer pretty well, but some areas of my computer are still foreign territory. I read all my news and weather online, and converse with many people online and by email, but I still pay bills by mail. I DO balance the checkbook against an online statement though.

As for geocaching savvy, I use a PDA for cache pages, but I still use Mapquest for maps. My GPSr doesn’t upload maps, just has a “points of interest” upload available. (Garmin GPS72) Many times I just look at where I want to go on Mapquest, but I don’t print it out – just write the name of the road I need on a post-it note that sticks to my dash. I still manually load coordinates into my Garmin, but I do have an interface cable on my christmas list.

As for computer use at work – we use the computer a lot in our medical office and are slated to go to an entirely electronic medical record within the next 12-24 months.

[This message has been edited by fishcachers (edited 10-17-2004).]

[brkster]

I guess I’m kind of in the middle myself…I learn more things each month, and get a little more adventurous towards joining what technnology has to offer while being a little ‘old fashion’ in other ways. I have geocached for about a year and just recently started using the compass function to lead me to caches (you’d probably laugh if I tell you how I used to do it). I still carry pages of cache info along and always have area maps in my car (I collect maps as well). I manually download, but I eventually will use the downloading methods on the computer. I communicate much more via e-mail than any other way, in fact I can’t stand being on the phone for more than a couple minutes. I also just recently got a hold of a digital camera and am having a blast with it. I bank and pay bills like I did back in the 1970’s, but eventually that will change. My daughter and son-in-law keep telling me to join the 21st century, yet I shock them when I learn new functions on my own. Hey..life is for learning, I guess.

[This message has been edited by brkster (edited 10-17-2004).]

[This message has been edited by brkster (edited 10-17-2004).]

[greyhounder]

hmmmm….I’d say the term “geek” applies to me, not so sure about the “techno” part. The first computer our family had was a Vic 20 and my brother and I loved to play the text adventure games. We got a few other computers after that, but I really didn’t use them until I got to college and did a lot of word processing. I started using the internet in the early 1990s, mostly just chat rooms (IRC), and just sort of progressed from there.

I have 2 computers that I use: a Mac and a laptop running Windows XP. The laptop is mostly for school and geocaching uploads. I have a PDA but have yet to get everthing all installed onto the laptop (I had lots of trouble interfacing with the Mac). I am an email freak. I almost never use the phone, and everyone who knows me, knows to email me before making any phone calls. I actually brought my old iMac to work to use rather than trudging down to the computer labs. I do almost all my paperwork on the computer, as well as most of my communication. My supervisor even instant messages me rather than calling, as she knows that’s my preferred form.

My biggest issue is that I’ve never really learned how to use computers — never took any sort of computer class. Everything is trial and error. And sometimes lots of errors. I’m lucky that my brother is a genius, with a degree in computer progamming and working for a company that provides tech support to companies worldwide. I can always call him (gotta use the phone for this!) and he will tell me how to fix my computer. Eventaully though, I get it all figured out. Might go faster if I ever read instruction manuals too (nah!)

I own lots of gadgets though. And lots of people at work ask me questions about how to do things on the computer, rather than going to our computer geek team. And it frightens me that I can usually answer their questions.

I don’t know. Guess I’d be the techno geek wannabe….

Bec

[This message has been edited by greyhounder (edited 10-17-2004).]

[skarolek]

quote:

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Originally posted by Cathunter:
Where do you fit into the techno-world?

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BitHead. Geek. Whatever you want to call it. I was about the 5th person at UWM CS to have an email address when email was invented. Before that I hung out on Compu$erve or “MAUDE” (Milwaukee Area Utility for Digital Exchange) then Exec PC.

My pants have a hard time staying up due to the stuff I hang on my belt. I bought a power inverter so I can take my laptop with Mapsource and GSAK along on the road. I have a PDA but with the laptop rarely use it for geocaching.

36 emails per day? I get 50-60 at my personal addresses most days and 2-300 a day at work most days. I’ve forgotten how to write. I can type and carry on a conversation at the same time and, while looking at the person I’m talking to, backspace and correct mistakes I realized I made. That really miffs my wife off…she figures I can’t possibly be paying attention to the conversation.

2 digital cameras, digital video, too many electronic toys and tools to count.

Steve K

[Miata]

Computer/Star Trek/Gadget geek! Look at my truck and you will see a Klingon Empire emblem and even named my Miata in Klingon language.

cha’DIch!. Nobody has ever questioned what that means. Must be very obvious.

MrsWIsearcher and I had this very conversation at the Picknic on the Tundra last month!

[ecorangers]

I can only speak for myself when I say that geocaching has taken my computer skills from nothing to something. I’m even downloading and uploading pictures! We did our first webcam cache today (thanks to Auntienae). So without geocaching I’d still be in the dark ages with “tech” stuff. Tami

[Buy_The_Tie]

quote:

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Originally posted by Miata:

cha’DIch!. Nobody has ever questioned what that means. Must be very obvious.

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No, not obvious at all. To those who are Klingon impaired (like me)…

Taken from the klingon.org

cha’Dich

The cha’Dich is an individual appointed by a warrior to stand with him during a ceremonial challenge or trial. The cha’Dich must defend the one challenged because he or she is denied the right of combat while accused. The cha’Dich is given a ritual knife and stands along side his warrior during the challenge.

[Miata]

Captain Picard was named as Worf’s cha’DIch in an episode of Star Trek The Next Generation, But it’s also the Klingon word for second (num).

Hence my “second Miata”

[admin]

Techno-geek computer savvy? Yes that’s me. My first major in college was computer science and engineering at MSOE (ran out of money). I started on a TI-99-4a computer and taught myself to write programs (at age 12). I use to call up BBS in Milwaukee with my 300-baud modem (56k is 56,000 baud). I have built my own computers and use them at work and home a lot. Although I don’t like taking my pda into the woods so I do print some caches out. You can enter coordinates on a gps manually??

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“A bad day of hunting is better than a good day at work”

[EnergySaver]

One of the hats I wear at my office it “IT Boy” for 25 users, so I guess that decides that. Ironically, before geocaching came along, I was totally sick of technology and was tempted to throw away my home fax machine and cell phone, and build a cabin under the freeway on ramp. By now I have an enjoyable reason to put up with technology. My first computer .. mid-70s, a good old Radio Shack TRS-80 (got to be called Trash-80), it used an audio cassette tape to upload/download the software, typically pong took about 20 minutes and 2 or 3 attempts/rewinds of the tape. I still remember my next computer and the excitment of when I upgraded it to have a 10 meg hard drive, more capacity than I could ever use. I also attend my High School’s first ever computer class, the computer was more like a calculator with 8 memory registers, paper punch tape to create/load the software and it was about the size of a desk. Makes me wonder what we are going to have in 10 or 20 years from now!

[AuntieNae]

Energy Saver, you have really brought back the memories! My parents bought an Apple II+ computer (we still have it in storage) when I was in High School.

My high school had the TRS-80 with the tape drive. I also took the only computer class. The teacher was upset with me when I would submit assignments on the 8 inch floppy’s (remember those?) because I was one generation ahead. The tapes never really did it for me.

Funny, at UWM, I would submit my papers typed from the Apple Computer .. when everyone else was hand writing them. Talk about coming a long way since then.

[Cathunter]

What a trip down memory lane!

I had a TI-99/4a that used a regular tape recorder for data storage. I remember staring at lines of code on the Trash-80’s big green screen. What about the Commodore 64? After my high school got a few Apple computers, they sent me to a word processing competition at a nearby college. Although I never have been very good at typing, I won the event… mainly just because I knew how to use the computer better that the others. Programming in BASIC- no hard drives yet- then DOS came along and we got our first IBM compatable. DOS only of course- There was no Windows. I saw Windows 3.1 for the first time while I was in the military. I couldn’t stand it and continued using DOS. My next PC was a P120 that is still around here somewhere.
I was also the test dummy for my school’s first electronic class- I was the only one in it.

[AuntieNae]

Cathunter ..

If then .. goto .. would make sense to you then! Yes, I learned BASIC too.

College, our data processing class involved using the dang punch cards! How could I forget burning all that paper.

[Grandma & Grandpa]

I teach computer ed, and lost my big collection of antique computers after my former district ran out of money and laid a bunch of us off. Now I am starting up another collection… So far, I have a TRS 80 Model 2, a Commodore PET, and a line on an old IBM ‘suitcase’ pc. Anyone care to donate one of these old ones everybody is talking about? They do not have to work, and need to be pre-Pentium, and not Apple. If interested, let’s talk!

Thanks Grandpa

[Author]

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