Post by: Texas Mac Man on November 08, 2009, 01:20:53 PM
QUOTE
In general terms men treat technology as something to be understood and conquered while women are more motivated by appliances that benefit them.
Post by: Paddy on November 08, 2009, 07:47:42 PM
QUOTE
The service found that 64% of its male callers and 24% of its female callers had not read the instruction manual before ringing up.
Hmmm...says a lot, doesn't it? Right up there with not being willing to stop and ask for directions when lost!
Post by: dolphin on November 08, 2009, 10:01:20 PM
QUOTE(Paddy @ Nov 8 2009, 09:47 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
QUOTE
The service found that 64% of its male callers and 24% of its female callers had not read the instruction manual before ringing up.
Hmmm...says a lot, doesn't it? Right up there with not being willing to stop and ask for directions when lost!
GPS units ended the problem of having to stop and ask directions!
Post by: kimmer on November 08, 2009, 10:23:28 PM
QUOTE
12% of male and 7% of female customers simply needed to plug in or turn on their appliance.
Post by: krissel on November 10, 2009, 03:04:31 AM
QUOTE(dolphin @ Nov 8 2009, 11:01 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
GPS units ended the problem of having to stop and ask directions!
Another example of the male relying on technology vs interacting with a human (which might reveal a personal deficit).
Post by: Highmac on November 10, 2009, 04:07:38 AM
QUOTE(krissel @ Nov 10 2009, 09:04 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
QUOTE(dolphin @ Nov 8 2009, 11:01 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
GPS units ended the problem of having to stop and ask directions!
Another example of the male relying on technology vs interacting with a human (which might reveal a personal deficit).
GPS units ("satnavs" over here) can be compared with calculators - you have to use common sense to get the best from them. I can look at a calculator result and know instantly it's wrong because I had a good grounding at school in mental arithmetic. Rather than believing implicitly, I'll key in the problem more carefully next time....
I posted here a while back about drivers of large trucks getting stuck in narrow country lanes after preferring to believe a satnav rather than the
sign, or even the new "Don't believe your satnav" 
sign at the turning into a country lane. I saw a report recently that software has been improved; drivers can "tell" the device the type of vehicle they are driving, so those incidents should fade into history.
Post by: Paddy on November 10, 2009, 08:01:16 AM
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2...15875-20656554/
(And if those are the figures for the UK, what are the numbers for the US??)
http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/26/another...s-instructions/
http://www.earthissquare.com/2009/08/26/st...blame-your-gps/
http://www.gpsmagazine.com/2007/11/bad_gps...i_blame_gps.php
And...will GPS make us dumb?
I think the answer to that one is an unqualified yes! If you rely on it completely, you don't really have to think and you're far less likely to remember the way another time, or on the way back. For that reason, I don't use the GPS locally, unless I'm out and decide to go look for something particular near where I am - it's great to be able to look up store names etc. and figure out if there is one on the way home.
It's a bit like cell phones and land line phones with built in phone books that have caused people to no longer remember phone numbers because they're all stored in the phone. I used to know all my friends' phone numbers without looking them up - not now.
Post by: Xairbusdriver on November 11, 2009, 01:58:08 PM
Post by: kimmer on November 11, 2009, 09:19:50 PM
... but we just returned from a trip to the Portland and without our friends GPS (Garmin) unit we would have been soooo lost. So I think in some situations, the GPS unit can be helpful.