Look who’s TECHING By Ian Greenland
I bought my father a digital camera about three year ago to photograph the model vehicles he builds and paints in his retirement. We ran through the basic controls together when we unboxed it and he quickly mastered the basic settings for taking pics. Transferring them to the computer though?... not so much. He’s never
liked computers. Despite tutoring him in this relatively straightforward operation (plug in, double click on the folder that pops up, drag the photos onto the desktop, unplug.... give or take), I received a call days later asking once more how it was done. Attempting to guide him through the operation this time from 80 miles away, you’d have thought I was talking a terrified passenger through emergency landing a 747. Let’s just say tension ran high (mostly on his end of the line). We gave up before this mild-mannered septuagenarian put a keyboard through a monitor or a monitor through a window (trying to think of a joke about computers and Windows crashing here but it was an Apple Mac so that would be disingenuous....)
With my father now highly agitated, I promised to demonstrate it again next time I visited. A few weeks later, I did just that with apparent (though fleeting) success. Days later, the call came in once again... Once again, I tried to talk him through the process and once again, the neighbours must’ve thought my lovely stepmum was having vile abuse hurled at her when really it was Steve Jobs (RIP... and equally blameless). This scenario Groundhog Day’d itself for several months until we finally came up with a simple, elegant solution. I filmed myself completing the exact procedure, accompanying my actions with a deliberately calm, concise and not remotely patronising narration. Inside I admit I was screaming, but there’s an inheritance at play here ;-) I emailed the short clip to him and told him if he ever forgot again, to just rewatch this video and copy the steps. THIS. WAS. BULLETPROOF.
78
