Kim:

I am inclined to agree with you, and yes, it is a shame companies are
sometimes forced to take inferior employees because they fail to meet the
pay scale the most capable demand. There have been moves to go that way
in my area of employment--however, this seems to becoming a moot point
as design and production slips off shore. With less and less people
paying into SSI, or paying less into SSI because of slipping salaries,
jobs disappearing--wonder if the oldsters ever sweat losing their
benefits? There may not be any by the time we get there or our children,
a crime really.

However, we should be careful, or we will look like this self-serving
bunch here who thinks themselves very special just because they possess a
hobby license and have their picture taken in front of a radio. I shudder
to think of how I would look walking around draped in the clothing of
false vanity...

Other skills besides computers are very valuable...

John

On Sat, 13 Aug 2005 12:41:28 +0000, Kim wrote:

On Fri, 12 Aug 2005 21:04:16 -0400, Dee Flint wrote:


The days of kids being computer gurus have already come and gone. Now
they
just play video games and chat. Very few get interested in programming.
Very few do a hardware project. They take their computers to the shop
for
upgrades. They only people that I have observed doing their own
hardware
upgrades, rebuilding computers, etc are the middle aged and the "old
farts"
that you seem to despise so.

I spend countless hours teaching our interns how to use email,
spreadsheets,
etc.

Dee D. Flint, N8UZE


BINGO! As Jim would say. With just a rough guess, I am surrounded by
approx. 70 or so people that would know me well enough to be inclined to
call for computer help. Of those, probably 50 percent are less than 35. Of
those, none are really what I would call "intermediate" users of the
computer. Some are above average (average being relative to the overall
community of people I am exposed to concerning computer users), but
certainly not self-sufficient on computer-ese.

I consider myself a very average computer user. I used to be right there
with technology, keeping up, etc. But, it's been about 30 years and I am
just wanting to get through each day on mine at work now...LOL At any rate,
as you mention above, Dee, I am still their immediate computer consultant
for my workgroup on spreadsheets, all the MS Office stuff, email, attaching
documents, finding things on their machines, cruising our network, etc. I
am happy to do it for them and I don't think of them with the disdain that
some seem to. I don't measure one's value by their efficacy on a computer.

I got my husband started in the computer world about 10 years ago. He's way
surpassed me now and I just ask him...LOL

Kim W5TIT