Upgrade WIN 10 Home to PRO for US$99 (I think it is going to $119 or already has).
I looked at that WOW advert - yeah sounds ok, but at US$1100 I can't help but think they basically set up a shell on a $600 box - I don't know that at all, I am just suspecting. What's more, maybe it is worth every cent, if it is done right and support is maintained.
The fact that the industry has ignored is that many people who were not born into existing computerization is that they do not
WNAT WANT all the crap. There are a few things that they do want but we have made it almost impossible to pick and choose.
I should have done this two years ago. I think now it is too late. Mom's ability to use the computer is headed down hill. My ability to use the computer is …….
Ability or willingness to suffer the frustration of not knowing exactly what to do? - face it, the model used to "learn" to use computers is pathetic and truly exploits
are our inability to understand how people learn - especially people who have been learning for all of their lengthy lives. The model is basically - here is 1000 pieces of junk to learn so that you can do 3 things that you want to do.
That is my beef with the direction of the culture - and maybe the WOW does, in fact, address the point.
For example, maybe 20 years ago, I went to visit my Uncle. When I arrived, he greeted me and casually pointed to a bunch of boxes, stating that he had purchased a computer and that I "had" to set it up....and set it up I did.
I taught him how to do a couple of things only - things that he wanted to do and it was basically to read certain Newspapers. He loved it and still uses it for that almost every morning. There were a few other things that I showed him - YouTube videos about select topics of interest [e.g., the master way to shell a blue crab for maximum meat production].
He maintains those functions today and very little else (he has children and nephews if something else needs to get done - and that only happens occasionally). Email is of no interest to him because of the burden of keeping up with all the nonsensical crap. If I want to send him a picture, it goes to his wife's phone - or I make a print and send it to him in the mail (which he loves). As for his cell...he has had one for many years...and he has never answered a call (it is kept powered off until he wants to use it). It is for outgoing calls only....when he wants to make a call...it is a portable phone booth..as he learned to use them. The rest of it does not matter to him. It is not worth the headache.
I maintain it is a headache because *they* have been learning in a certain manner all of their lives and culturally, we have tossed those processes out the window and that leads to a lot of frustration. Combine that with tiny buttons, low volumes and tiny screens and they are smart to dump the whole mess. I admire him, he is very intelligent and very successful and has no interest in spending countless hours to learn things that he does no need to know.
I once strongly considered writing software designed to operate a TV....a dedicated android tablet. Simple to use, large screen...scroll to the picture of the channel, touch the screen and go to the channel. Bells and whistles limited (topic headings, favorites, a few of those). Internet connectable so that I could change the programming remotely when the cable channels or other equipment changed. I never did it and I always feared that it would not be used - especially after the first time it did not do "what it was supposed to do" - that, in addition to the challenge of the task.
Now the high end cable options include voice activated remotes. We are getting there, slowly and expensively and with no privacy and a ton of intrusive advertisements.
*sigh*
If you're lucky.