Age of 2010+ Prius owners

Just checked the vote tally and found 125 people had voted, with 62 in the 50+ age group so I have just voted to make 50+ group a nice even 50% (in honor Adrian Monk and OCD folk everywhere) . This is an honest vote, I am over 50.

 

Nice...Since have of the respondants are 50+ (me too), I'm thinking that Toyota's next big improvement is to make the seats out of that "Depends" material for added driver comfort and less stops on long trips.

Now it really is, Happy Motoring!

Tom

 

Alright, now be honest. Those of you in the 50+ group, how many had to have your kids show them how to get on the Internet the first time you did so?

:bolt:

 

Um, what age group do you think the builders of the Internet / Usenet / Arpanet etc. are now in?

 

What about 16 and 17 year olds? I am not referring to myself I am in that huge 50 + group.

 

Sigh.

My oldest computer was mechanical, a 3600 RPM motor with cams on it provided the 'clock speed', so it ran at 60Hz, not MHz, not GHz, just Hz.

At 14 I got a computing merit badge writing in PL/1.

In 1978 I bought a Apple ][ a big step forward, so I could do word processing to get through college. (I got a modem for it, but could not use it, party line)

In 1983 I started writing communication programs to connect dealers to the factory, my Honda program connected 300 dealers in Canada to the distributorship in Toronto. (and each other) parts ordering, warranty claims, vehicle locater, etc. 1200 baud modems, but each call averaged 57 seconds, to keep long distance rates low. (Not via the internet, I was using x.25 at the dealers and LU6.2 at the distributorship, private access to the internet does not even begin until 1989)

(My daughter is born in 1984)

I start using online forums in 1991, via BBSs

By 1992 my employer was 'internet ready', 200 computers on a local area network running TCP/IP. We would not get internet service until 1996, but we were doing email in 1992. (UUCP for you over 50s who remember back that far. [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UUCP"]UUCP - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame])

An ISP starts in my town in 1996, I use a triple WAN router and three 56k modems to get my house networked. My daughter was 12 and she has been using my expertise online since.

By the time I retired in 2002, the firm was using gigabit ethernet locally (1000 devices) with a 44 Mbps wireless link 50 miles back to town for our internet. Every truck and shovel was linked wirelessly to the mechanics who could run diagnostics on a truck remotely. Operations knew where each truck was with in 25 feet, and used 'air traffic control software' to manage traffic.

These days I am a network analyst for a Xerox dealer, installing and maintaining networks over northwestern MS and 3 counties in AR. (30,000 miles a year, it is why I own a Prius)

None of this is unusual, I suspect many 50+ posters would tell similar histories. My father who is 88, started programming computers in 1957, and uses the internet to keep up with beekeeping and facebook to hear from his children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.

I mostly have to dispel Prius myths, it is sad to have to dispel age myths.

 

Not me. I had to show my kids. I did teach a number of my friends, too.
I'm quite a bit over 50.
I was using forums and online chat on the Plato system back in the 80s!

 

Don't worry, I was only kidding. Though I'm sure there's at least a few people who've had that experience. I know my siblings and I have, at the very least, "encouraged" my parents along their path with cell phones, then smart phones, DSL, WiFi, and plenty of other new technologies. They'd probably have figured them out without us too, though.

I had the interesting experience about 10 years ago of teaching my 80-year-old great aunt how to use a computer. Well, perhaps not how to use a computer, but all these new-fangled things like a mouse, or windows, or clicking... She had been a computer programmer in about 1960 or so, when that meant punchcards and mainframes, and hadn't touched a computer since. (My only experience with punchcards is using the leftover, mostly-unpunched ones my dad brought home as scratch paper by the telephone.) Needless to say, absolutely none of her prior experience was applicable, and helping her over the phone meant giving very specific instructions, as terms like "menu bar" or "Apple menu" simply weren't familiar for her. She got off to a very slow start, but has been doing very well recently!

 

All I want my cell phone to do is be a phone. I recently deleted 43 pictures of the inside of my shirt pocket. If they ever make a smart phone for folks with extra wide fingers, let me know. Every model I have seen is going to take a pencil sharpener to my fingers to use.

Yes, computers change over time, so do cars. the 'user interface' of a Nash Metropolitan is different than a Prius. (I have always driven small cars)

I went with a 'Fat Mac' in 1985 so I was on the leading edge of WIMP. My 'stagnation' period was a 1996 PowerMac 7600/120 I used for 13 years, that box was WAY more stable than Windows 7, but my browser experience was getting difficult. (youtube did not support any browser that would run) It had 3 19" monitors, 440 meg of RAM and a 500 Mhz CPU. Not bad for a box most PC owners thought was unexpandable.

Now I run dual monitors and 3 gig of RAM, but this dual core never makes it over 30 days without a reboot.

This thanksgiving I helped my 60+ year old sister link her GPS to a trip planning program on her home computer so it would order her daily routes in the shortest time order not just in the order given to her by her employer. (she visits about 40 locations per day, somewhere in AK, WA, OR, ID, and MT) This is indeed helping the elderly to use new technology, but not at the level you were expecting, I suspect.

 

Testify, Bro, testify!!!
My first home computer was a Coleco. I had already been using PDP-11's and VAX's at work.

 

"60+" = "elderly"? Ouch! (Well, I guess it depends on how much "+").

 

Actually, I am the one who pretty much introduces my two daughters (20's and 30's) to the new-fangled stuff, not the other way round. I had a GPS first, then gave one to each of them. I have an Android phone - my older daughter had an iPhone but I was the one who introduced her many apps, including Angry Birds! (She mastered all the levels long before I did though - although I'm not exactly sure that the iPhone and Android versions are the same).

 

You have to recall that the OP started elderly at 22. No clue what his plan for 16 and 17 year old drivers was.