They were pretty good for the time, but really had no solid upgrade path. Even worse were the Jaz drives. Again, for the time, this was a nice storage option, but they were comparatively fragile and rather expensive. But 2 GB storage was nice. USB flash drives really blew them out of the water, though.
I think at some point, the frozen-in-time Iconoclast is actually going to end up so far behind the times that he won't even be able to connect to the Internet any more. He seems too retarded (in its strict literal sense) to learn anything at all that he doesn't already know.
I know people in their 80s who are quicker on the uptake in adopting new things.
Wholly agreed. I would imagine that Sweet would be utterly baffled by any computer technology beyond '97 if it weren't for his mother keeping him alive and buying things for him. Without her to carry him, Sweet wouldn't be able to keep up at all. Someone had suggested he go to a PC room to take care of his storage woes, only to have Sweet respond that he'd need a credit card, which he didn't have access to. The guy's completely hopeless, as he has inadvertently implied several times now.
Consider his response to
@DrChristianTroy :
Look, that's how things were done in my day, where I lived, where I went to school. I think you need to open up your mind more, start looking outside your narrow little definition of normal, and learn to respect that maybe some people do things differently than you do, and and perhaps back then we did them even better.
Look, that's how things were done in my day, where I lived, where I went to school.
What Jon is essentially admitting here is that he is helplessly mentally retarded. Everyone learns how to do things in school, where they live, in their "day" - which, considering that Jon is still using computers, would be
today. I, myself, grew up using Apple computers. When introduced to PC in my early adulthood, I learned to use those, and even to fix or upgrade them to a certain degree, well after I had finished university. Jon's speaking here as if learning things once blocks a person's ability to learn things later.
Of course, this is ludicrous. If not for the lessons of the past, we would not be able to build upon things later. Jon has not learned new things about computers, TV, artistic technique, or anything else of relevance, not because he chooses not to (though laziness has something to do with it, I'm sure), but because
he cannot. He simply lacks the intellectual mechanism to figure out how to do unfamiliar things without a direct teacher. Simply finding the warranty for his laptop was like trying to escape a hedge maze with no exit for him. For a person of average intellect, the challenge would have been rather mild.
He seems not to notice that, while
he could not keep up with new tech, his family, including his mother, could.
I think you need to open up your mind more,
This is a cry for help, and since I find Sweet to be such a loathsomely disgusting individual, I'm glad to see it remain unanswered.
Jon is a powerless loser with no influence of the world, and hardly any control over his own life. All it would take would be one bad argument between Tim and his new wife, and suddenly, with little forewarning, the Bull Moose would be living in with his mom again, bringing with him every possibility of a relapse into drug abuse, bad behavior, and more unpredictable violence on Jon. All it would take is one more day of frustration, and Jon's mom cuts him off from everything -
everything, including a house to live in. There's nothing Jon can do to help himself at all. He simply doesn't have the mental capacity to take care of himself in any functional way.
Ever egregiously egotistical, however, as well as stupidly, irrationally combative, Jon can't simply say the respectful, honest thing. Something like,
"Well, I see what you're saying, but my problem is that I have a disability that prevents me from learning things at a reasonable pace. My perspective on computers may be highly out-of-date, or even completely inaccurate, but that's because I just can't process new information like everyone else. So, if I come across as highly ignorant about the subject, bear with me."
No, that would be admitting to weakness.
Of course, Jon admits to weakness all the time, but this is a weakness he cannot easily blame on others. "I went into the lion's den, and I got the claws," he said of his time here at KF. Well, see, that's an attempt to cover his failure by painting us at the bad guy. Jon won't admit his weakness unless he can get a dig in at someone. It's probably a means of trying to massage his bruised ego.
start looking outside your narrow little definition of normal, and learn to respect that maybe some people do things differently than you do,
Jon does not pass up the opportunity to try and chastise his opponent, even when making himself look foolish when doing so.
DocTroy's definition of normal is shared by everyone from master-class computer scientists to average houseparents typing out the community newsletter. It's Jon himself that has the problems with the computers he has. Even as I write this, I'm certain that he would not be able to come up with a single source who would agree with him. No one has Jon's computer problems but him.
What Jon wants is for the world to slow down for him. He's stuck on the side of the road with his car up on blocks, and everyone is rushing past him without paying him the slightest attention. He can't possibly keep up, but he feels entitled to being carried by the other drivers. Since no one will stop for him, he insists that the world slow itself to his speed, Stop.
and and perhaps back then we did them even better.
No. Simply put. He absolutely didn't.
? For standard definition DVDs to remain the standard for video? For Web 2.0 to remain in it's infancy? For any "chinaphone" to be over cellphones and early smartphones? For politics to remain like 2007 liberal politics (despite Bush being in office then)? And they wanted to found the Watergaters to do just that?
