[Channeal]

Was wondering just if there are any - shall we say, slightly more senior - people here? And if so, whether their experiences have been similar to mine?

I do not know very much about computer stuff really, though I have learned a bit as I have gone along (and quite a lot from this site, of course!). I love computers and have a great yearning to learn more about them. The thing is though, I do not know a single person who shares my interest. Most of the other women I meet from my age group say they can just about deal with answering an email and that's about it! It is so frustrating; I have nobody to talk to about computers and nobody to teach me things! Even my husband has no interest in these matters: he is a sports fanatic and would much rather be out playing golf or watching football!

Maybe I was just born at the wrong time! Or perhaps - as I love lots of modern music too - I have just never grown up (quite likely!)

The little U.K. town in which I live does not seem to have any computer clubs. I did find one in a village a few miles away and that sounded quite good,  but unfortunately I do not drive (I have a disability which meant I never learned) and so I cannot get there. :-( Rather interestingly, I live fairly close to a very big town,  but have not found anything there apart from either for youngsters, or for senior citizens wanting to learn the real basics. I am looking for something in-between these two extremes!

Anyway, I was just curious to know if anybody else out there feels the same. The other day, we were talking to a man of 86 who used to be an engineer and a toolmaker and whose mind is still incredibly alert, although his body is sadly not in such a good state. He mentioned in the course of the conversation with my husband (a lot of which went completely over my head ) that he has a friend who knows quite a bit about computers. I assumed he was talking about somebody of a similar age to him - and it got me thinking that there must be quite a few 'oldies' out there somewhere who also love computers!

 

Chris.

Edited by Channeal, 16 July 2016 - 07:57 AM.

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[zep516]

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[Channeal]

Hello zep516,

 

Thanks very much for taking the time to reply; I thought it quite possible that I would get no answers at all!

 

Yikes.... am not at all sure I am clever enough for Geek University!!!! I know that malware can be extremely complicated to deal with!

 

Also, am not sure I would be able to provide the level of commitment necessary, as I have a lot of family stresses/problems at the moment. Will at least consider the idea for the future though, as I imagine it must be extremely rewarding work.

 

Cheers,

Chris.

Edited by Channeal, 16 July 2016 - 02:01 PM.

[dbreeze]

If you can read a book and find information in a library, you can pass GeekU (Malware Training).  I did and I definitely fall in the age category you mentioned!!

[zep516]

It's also a great outlet from removing yourself from the family stresses / problems that you can only do so much with anyway.

[azarl]

Hi Channeal

 

I'm in a not dissimilar situation to you. Early sixties, disabled, live in a small town in the UK, 10 miles from a big city. I knew nothing about malware when I started here, in fact my first visit here was to get get advice on getting rid of a browser hijacker - now they can't get rid of me

 

Age UK run training courses - http://www.ageuk.org...aining-courses/

This place has a simple get-up-to-speed course - http://www.seniorsgu...ocomputers.com/

[Channeal]

Are you guys all on a recruitment drive or something?

But seriously, thanks so much for your replies. It is a completely new idea to me, but one I promise I will consider seriously. I can see that it might possibly be something I might enjoy, although I am not sure that right now is the right time. My life is not my own at the moment, especially as I got bamboozled into being Secretary for a charitable organisation. It was something I so did not want to do in the first place (especially as I hate taking minutes!), but it has proved to be a complete and utter nightmare due to the main guy who takes on too much work in his business life and therefore does not answer my emails giving me the info I need...... all of which takes up a lot of my time!

At the moment too, I only have an old computer which could go wrong at any time, especially as we are still using XP (don't all shout at me at once - it is down to my husband!). When I have a more reliable computer - and have managed to ditch the secretarial thing, I will consider the suggestions again.

What I really need is something where I can get to know others with similar interests. Thanks for the links to Age Concern etc azarl, but I these courses are probably a bit too basic for me.

Thanks again for your interest guys; it has been good to 'talk' to you.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend,
Chris.

[DonnaB]

OMGoodness! It's as if I just read my life's story!!

Channeal, you would be a great candidate for GeekU. Like you, my life was not my own till I found my first online forum and realized how much I deprived myself of the things in life that made me happy. I got my first computer as a gift when I was in my late 40's (am now in my mid 50's) and was afraid to use it. Wow! That was less than 10 years ago. (I had some really good teachers )

The GeekU training program does not discriminate with what you do or don't know about computers. I found my first forum back in 2009 and Zep516 was my very first teacher/mentor. I wouldn't know how to copy and paste much less the difference between a file and a folder if not for him. Looking back, I would never have thought I would be where I am today. Do give this some thought. We are here to teach you all the skills needed to be the best that you can be.
 

What I really need is something where I can get to know others with similar interests.

You just found it!

[Channeal]

Hello DonnaB,

 

Thank you so much for your really nice message; it is so good to hear that somebody else understands how I feel and has been in a similar situation.

First of all, apologies for not replying before. My husband and I have been away for a couple of nights (a gift for my recent birthday). Our daughter has been suffering from PTSD since January 2015 (when she was 34) and since then has only left the house on rare occasions. This was the first time since then that we have left her for longer than a few hours.

 

We have had a computer for a long time (since 1999), so I guess I have acquired a reasonable amount of knowledge since then - mainly through googling for info and from reading forums. I have also taught myself basic HTML and have my own Greek verb website, as we are attempting to learn Greek.

 

Back in 2014 I was involved in a very long thread on GTG which started when I was sorting out a little redirection virus myself and became worried that I had damaged my computer because the sound seemed to suddenly stop working! I was taken through all the virus checks and when they found nothing, my helper redirected me to a tech. Then followed a prolonged period during which my printer went wrong and refused to reinstall after I deleted it, plus my monitor packed up altogether in the middle of a Scandisk scan! When I finally got everything sorted, I ended up doing completely unplanned stuff such as swapping over the smaller second hard drive (which came with the computer) to be the main C drive, swapping all my data over and cloning the OS - all of which kept me out of mischief for a while!! All in all, I was in the forum for 5 months (and had such an amazing amount of help), as a result of lots of problems occurring. The strange thing was, I enjoyed everything I did so much and felt really sad after it finished, in spite of my initial euphoria at having achieved my aims. I felt as though my life had had a purpose while I was doing all the work - and then I was left with none again!

 

Not long after that, our lives imploded as a result of what happened to our daughter. She moved back in with us and - as I said before - has barely left the house. She has refused to have any counselling or any help at all, so it has been an extremely stressful and frustrating time. We are naturally doing all we can to support her and this is obviously more important than anything else. Inevitably though, it has affected my own life a lot too. I feel as if nobody else thinks of that and I sometimes feel completely lost and forgotten by the whole world! There seems to be no end to all this in sight either!

 

I have been thinking a lot about what you guys suggested. I am still not sure I would be any good at this (even if I was accepted to do it). I am not sure my family would be happy about it either; both my husband and daughter complain now if I am on the computer for too long. My husband does not understand anybody wanting to be inside the house for too long, he thinks we should be out somewhere all the time!  

 

Anyway, this is still something that I will give a lot more thought to. There is definitely a big part of me that thinks I would enjoy it, were I actually able to do it!

 

As I said in my earlier messages, there are however lots of things that need to be dealt with before I could even consider it. We are also taking our daughter away to Greece for 4 weeks from the end of August (we managed to get her there for two weeks last year and it did seem to help her for a while - though the airports were a nightmare for her!)

 

Thanks again for all your replies. Will hopefully connect with you all again some time. 

 

Chris.

[SpywareDr]

FWIW - Late 60's here, (and retired). Computing since the early 80's . . . back before the "IBM PC" and Microsoft's "MS-DOS" hit the market.

[avengers00]

definitely not me 

[Channeal]

Thanks for replying to this thread, Spyware Dr. Actually, we also had a computer in the early 80s - can't remember what it was called. I only played games on it, but I remember that we had to program all the games into it ourselves! I never discovered a way the save the stuff I had programmed in,
so I had to program it in every time.

Unfortunately, I have never had anyone to teach me anything to do with the computer - so have had to learn gradually as I have gone along

Interesting that only the malware folks have answered - I guess there cannot be any older tech experts here! Or maybe they are just too shy to admit their age!

Having said earlier in this thread that my computer could go wrong at any time, it then went and did just that! It might be that it has finally died, or could be malware-related. If so, I could be meeting up with you guys again sooner than expected, only to get some help! We will see!

Btw, avengers00...... believe me, old age creeps up on you sooner than expected. Enjoy being young while you can!

Cheers,
Chris

Edited by Channeal, 23 July 2016 - 12:20 PM.

[6stringer]

I'm a tad over 61 so I guess I'm in the club!  I've been using computers since 1989 and still learn something new all the time.

[paws]

I guess there cannot be any older tech experts here!

 

 

There's a few but some of us regard 50 or 60's as hardly out of kindergarten!

 

If you have had a computer since the 80's then maybe you should be helping out on the forums???

 

Quite a good way of learning is to look at posts here on G2G (past ones will be fine) but only look at the initial post..... then try to formulate your own simulated reply, without looking to see what the techs have said.... then take a look and see what the techs have said..... after you have done this a number of times you will begin to see a pattern emerging you can move through a topic trying to second guess what the tech is likely to say.....

 

There's lots of tools we use and you may have come across some of them...e.g.

chkdsk with  the r switch  ie chkdsk /r (note the space)

sfc /scannow

setting up a new user profile (if we suspect that the old one may be corrupted)

using Puppy Linux to back up when a machine won't load Windows ( I know you have tried Puppy in the past)

use of the Recovery environment

last known good config

use of safe mode

Repair my computer (using it)

use of msconfig

clean boot?

 

That's just for starters, remember search engines are often a good friend.... don't be afraid to use them but seek confirmation from additional sources that the site you are visiting is giving correct information....

 

You can pretty well rely on sites such as G2G, Whatthetech, bleepingcomputer.com etc as these are moderated and if we spot bad advice then we will jump in and correct it or even   edit or delete the post if its truly dangerous advice!

 

Hope this homespun type approach works for you..... but it is really time to stop using Win XP unless you isolate it from other sources of data ( and this does include NOT using it on the Internet or for email etc)

 

There are a few computer clubs based near the south coast fire up your favourite search engine and see if there are any that you could get to and that deal with stuff you are interested in.

 

If you are a member of U3a ( University of the third age) then there are some jolly good visiting lecturers who are booked from time to time and if you can get to the meetings then its an ideal place to learn and be able to ask questions.... 

Good luck and post back if you have any specific questions

Regards

paws

[Channeal]

Thanks for your reply, 6stringer.

There is certainly always something new to be learned with computers.

Chris.