Urk, I have a laptop - got a bad habit of using PC and laptop interchangeably. Sorry about that - I really do know better. Anyway, I wouldl like to know more, even if just for the sake of it. My last laptop got the blue screen (fortunately, AFTER I finished grad school) and I was left to the mercy of the most patronizing computer repair techs you can imagine. I’ve always been sort of the frustrated techie, but for various reasons, haven’t had much chance to pursue learning opportunities.
My dad can do that. He can tell you the year/make/model of a car (let’s say pre-1975) just by catching a glimpse of the tail light. I still want to know why people never mention the model of a car when they talk about old cars. Why is it always “Ohh, that’s a 68 Chevy” or “79 Pontiac” and I’m sitting here thinking “Pontiac what”
Someone upthread mentioned how much harder it is to fix newer cars because there so jam packed. I was just telling one of my employees that when I work on our snow plow (1995 Ford Bronco) it’s really nice because I can pop the hood and literally sit up in the engine bay and see what I’m doing. On our old Econoline cargo trucks I could scoot under the truck and sit up…it’s really nice to be able to chance a fuel filter or the oil while you’re sitting up, or at least on your side instead of on your back.
Okay, next one for me. Investing. I’m talking about small amounts of money. For example, I have a savings account for my daughter with about $4-$5K in it. Every time I think that I should do something with it, I very quickly get overwhelmed. Stock market, money market, Edvest, savings bonds, pre-tax, post-tax, deferred tax, tax deductible, early withdrawal penalties401k, 529 and a ton of other things. Eventually, I just throw my hands up and figure I’ll just pay the tax on it now (as I earn it), pay the tax on the interest as I earn it, know it’s all mine free and clear and leave it in my Ing account.
If you search here, you’ll find at least two threads by me asking for advice (that I never took).
Sports…I have no interest in them, so I don’t know the rules, etc.
The thing you have to remember is that a movie or TV show is a completed invented work. Nothing in it just happened. A bear didn’t walk on to the set and start eating birdseed while the camera just happened to be recording.
Somebody picked the location. Somebody put a bird feeder in that spot and filled it with seed. Somebody went out and rented a bear and hired its trainer. Somebody set up the camera and lights and microphones.
There’s nothing spontaneous in a movie or television series. Everything is there for a reason and is part of the story.
All sports except baseball, which I understand but don’t follow closely. Unless the Cubs are gonna do it this year of course.
Also politics. It either makes me angry or makes my eyes glaze over, so I avoid it. I do vote though. Maybe that’s scary, I dunno.
Fashion or decorating. I’m a woman, and I have no talent for it. At all. I wear a t-shirt and jeans with no makeup outside at all times. And my home is just a warehouse for my stuff, and it looks like it.
I’m ignorant about how it is that saying I’m ignorant about something I have no interest in is actually secret bragging.
The idea is that if you say you’re ignorant of something like pop culture while also saying that you have no interest in pop culture, you’re implying that you feel pop culture is not worth the effort of learning and you’re actually bragging that you are smarter than the people who wasted their time learning pop culture.
I don’t feel they’re wasting their time there. 
I don’t expect everyone to be interested in what I like, either.
Maybe some are secret bragging, tho. I get that.
“I am far too intelligent and superior to waste my time and mental effort on the mundane and childish activities that so many of my intellectual inferiors seem to take pleasure in. How very sad for them.”
Knitting, hockey, oil painting, electronics, cake decorating, flaking techniques in prehistoric societies, Rules of spelling, calculus, pool maintenance and repair, care of new body piercings, how to program my VCR without reading the instructions, bank overdraft policies, and wrapping presents to be presentable.
I’m serious.
Too many things to count. It’s embarrassing when my boyfriend and I go to the local pub quiz - he could probably go on his own and do just as well. The only subjects I’ve been able to contribute to are literature, grammar, and stuff to do with Korea. He slays me in politics, movies, history, and music.
Chess. Everyone expects me to know how to play, and I am horrible. I once lost to a Fool’s mate. In a tournament I got in because I knew where to put the pieces.
Same with videogames. I love 'em, but I’m not good at them. And it’s not like I didn’t grow up on them. I’ve beaten maybe a handful of games. I’m Irate Gamer bad, sometimes.
And I can honestly throw in pop music. I can listen to it and enjoy it, but I can’t get into it enough to learn the stuff that everyone else seems to know innately. I have to go look up stuff about it if I want to carry on a conversation with my peers, or stick with classical analysis. That last sentence proves that I’m ashamed of it, or why would I try to hide it?
Economics, both on the micro and macro level. Thankfully my wife is very organized and methodical with our finances; if it were up to me we’d be in the poorhouse. On the wider scale, I can’t being to comprehend how the stock market works, or the loan market, or how the whole financial crisis came to be (except in the broad sense of “greedy people fucked us over.”)
Even more “popular” treatments, like Michael Lewis’s “The Big Short,” fly over my head.
Let me explain my POV. Where I work, everyone seems to have an Iphone with some $100 a month plan with data. Even if people are driving to work in $100 beater cars held together with duct-tape, they seem to have these expensive smart phones (presumeably with the optional ‘you need less disposeable income’ data plans). Personally, I grab my internet from the Wifi of the hotel across the street, because quite honestly I can use that $100 a month on the bills I already have.
That said, I really do agree with your post on PC courses. Many are set up to be so patronizingly simple that they are annoying and a waste of money. The higher level ones seem to jump so far into the course material that you feel foolish just raising your hand. I guess really good PC teachers are worth their weight in gold and they don’t public-domain their secrets or lesson plans.
and this is Still my favorite Dope thread:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=260053&highlight=Computer
Just for perspective, my total AT&T bill for two phone lines with an unlimited data plan for one iPhone is only $83 per month.
Edit: Ah, but I have no text plan, because I was born with a penis. I guess maybe that could put you over $100.
You… still use a VCR?
Mine also. The sum state of my nutrition knowledge is that Vitamin C used to be great and cure everything, and now it does nothing more than prevent scurvy. I have no clue what else is good/bad for Vitamin A, B, R, Iron, Niacin, Zinc, blah blah blah.
Saturated this vs unsaturated that, and some are poly- this and that…it’s a constantly moving target that I’ve never been able to follow. I just nod dumbly and swallow any pill that Mrs G feels I should be taking.
I live my diet by Saturday morning public service blurbs, and it seems to work. 4 food groups, avoid processed and deep fried foods. I hanker for a hunk of cheese.
No, I understood your quoted statement philosophically (and I agree), I was just using your phrasing about locking up WiFi routers to illustrate my ignorance about the technical stuff. Actually, because of the other thread about someone having an outrageous charge on her smartphone, I gather WiFi is the home network and a person can use that to access the net on a cell phone instead of the phone’s network (the 3G or 4G, correct?) This is what I mean, I have no clue about this stuff. I’ve got to make the time to educate myself even if I never get a smartphone because just hearing people talk about it or reading about it drives me crazy. Fergawdssake, I don’t even know what Bluetooth is or the difference between an IPhone and an iPad. This is a rant against myself, not anyone else, btw. So, I must dedicate a few minutes a day to finding this easily obtainiable information.
Any kind of “home-ec” stuff other than cooking. I don’t know the first thing about knitting, crochet, needle-point, etc…I know there are needles involved in them, but what kind, how many, what to do with them? Eh…of course, I’m a guy, so it isn’t expected of me to know about them, but I can’t even sew…like, if I lose a button, I throw out the shirt/pants and buy a new one.
I also apparently clean for shit. My place never looks gross, but I can never get all those little hairs off the bathroom sink/toilet, or all the dust off of the floor, and my dishes always have streaks…so even if I just cleaned the whole place, it looks like I cleaned maybe a few days or a week ago.