Every time a family member drops a, “Have you heard of this? So-and-so recommended it to me,” on me and I remind them that I mentioned it to them (or sent them a link to info on it or demoed it to them) months (or longer) ago, it makes me look like I’m ahead of the(ir) curve.
Which I am. *heh*
Example, (person who shall go unnamed) asked me this week if I’d heard of DropBox. *sigh* I’ve been using it for quite a while now, since it left beta testing. I’ve sent them several links to public DropBox files, sent them links to sign up and FAQ pages, etc.
All I said was, “Sure have. It’s really useful. See?” turning my notebook to face ’em and opening its DropBox folder… *heh*
While I find it handier in many ways to set up my computers so I can access the actual machines remotely, DropBox is useful for simply having files I need to have accessible from anywhere handy. Sure, I have a SkyDrive account and other online file storage services. I even have certain kinds of files stored on my own hosting (testing the limits of “unlimited storage” *heh*). But DropBox is just dead simple to use. For Win/Mac/Linux. One’s DropBox folders are also accessible via the web.
Well, I took a rabbit trail, didn’t I? S’all right. I still get to look “smart” (to some ;-)).
And we all know that it’s appearances that matter.
At least there’s something there to back up those appearances.
🙂
Well, there use-ta was some “smarts” in ma past, but I’ve begun to trust my memory and such less of late. *sigh* Had someone get snarky with me today when I asked for help sourcing the phrase “unwept, unhonored and unknown“. No help offered, of course, just multiple snarky comments about me being incompetent with Google.
Of course, as I later recalled–quite serendipitously in another context–the correct phrase was “unwept, unhonored and unsung”–from Sir Walter Scott’s “Lay of the Last Minstrel”–recited to me by my paternal grandfather 50 years or so ago.
Google is handy as a source for quotations and the like… if you can get past all of the so-called experts that simply repeat the “common wisdom” whether it’s correct or not. Too many people like your snarky acquaintance think that being able to use a search engine is all that it takes to be literate in our society.
I use them a lot myself, but I believe that if a person is always 100% accurate in their use of quotations that they don’t really know the material they’re quoting. Your example of Sir Walter Scott’s phrase is a perfect example of what I mean.
You knew the source material – it was just a matter of digging up the correct association in your mind. That’s what makes trusting your memory (at least in my case) so tough. There’s so much other stuff jumbled in there with the meat that you want to dig out that sometimes it takes a while to get to it.
Even worse in my case is that every now and then while I’m trying to remember something like that I get distracted by what I do remember…
Oh look, a squirrel!
Yeh, Perri, I share some of that problem. I sometimes think that perhaps Sherlock Holmes was onto something: only just so much room in one’s head. Clutter it up with too much information and it can make things difficult (And I now recall that I had heard someone else’s adaptation of the Scott line in another context, probably from an earlier mis-remembered misquotation. *heh*)
Being the last person to hear of or do something, can’t say I empathize. That’s if you don’t count malaria. Or getting shot in the head. Or getting shot in the head twice. Explains a lot but still keeps me as far behind the curve as is humanly possible. If you use that newfangled thing they call Google and type in “ignorance is bliss” the picture that comes up will be of me.
Glad to know you’re so blissful, Fits. 🙂
BTW, all, while I do like DropBox and recommend it as an easy-peasy file sharing/sync-ing solution for most folks, I also like using my free, 25GB SkyDrive account as a DropBox-like affair. Takes a simple procedure using the Share to Web functionality of M$ Office 2010 and then mapping the folder saved to as a drive on one’s computer.
It’s not as slick as DropBox, but with the same folder mapped as a drive to different computers, the sync-ing’s taken care of, and it’s 12.5 times the storage of a free DropBox account.
They probably say “Oh look! David is sending me another cool techie thing. It’s probably too advanced for me if David is sending it.” Then instead of checking it out they forget about it until someone less intelligent recommend it to them then they say “Hey David check this out.”
By the way my comma key is broken.
“By the way my comma key is broken.” On a Mac keyboard?!? *heh* (Just kidding)
Actually, I have trained some clients to follow my advice. Friends and relatives, notsomuch. *heh* (Well, my dad’s an exception. He’s remarkably flexible.)