Unexpected
Talked to little brother on the other side of the country a couple of weeks back. This is the guy whose laptop I set up and locked down so that (hopefully) nothing too nasty could happen to it while he wrote his doctoral thesis.
Li'l bro has never been a computer person. At all. In any way. What he has had is general bad luck/timing associated with computers and educational assignments.
So when I phoned up and offered to back up his almost-completed thesis across the net, just in case his laptop went under a truck wheel or into a concrete mixer along with the only copy of three years' work, I was slightly boggled to be told that not only had he mastered the arcanities of making archives on the laptop itself, but had also taken it upon himself to learn how to save copies of his work on the University computers and 'a couple of places around the Web'.
To say I was gobsmacked would be an understatement. Obviously, I've spent far too many years dealing with people who cultivate active ignorance as if it could win them horticultural prizes.
Li'l bro has never been a computer person. At all. In any way. What he has had is general bad luck/timing associated with computers and educational assignments.
So when I phoned up and offered to back up his almost-completed thesis across the net, just in case his laptop went under a truck wheel or into a concrete mixer along with the only copy of three years' work, I was slightly boggled to be told that not only had he mastered the arcanities of making archives on the laptop itself, but had also taken it upon himself to learn how to save copies of his work on the University computers and 'a couple of places around the Web'.
To say I was gobsmacked would be an understatement. Obviously, I've spent far too many years dealing with people who cultivate active ignorance as if it could win them horticultural prizes.