My GF is trying to figure out how to take pictures with her computer's webcam. Her system is Vista (which she hates). I use a Mac, so I can't help her. I Googled up a bunch of answers, none of which resembled each other and each of which raised more questions than they answered.

Here's my gripe. It's about peoples' communications skills. IMO, nobody should be allowed to graduate from a 2-year college without being able to describe a somewhat complex process that any person of average intelligence can easily follow, step-by-step, successfully, without error, every time.

It is bad enough that computers seem designed to make us feel stupid. It makes it worse that even very smart people seem unable to give helpful advice that the rest of us morons will find useful.

I have a lot more to say about this, But I'll leave it at that.

What advice/help did you get that you didn't understand? Maybe try taking that advice to someone else and asking for help to understand?

I can't answer that. All I know is that she tried to follow them and got lost each time. (I can assure you that she is at least of average intelligence) The biggest stumbling block seems to be the old "where's the button" game.

Maybe she can make a thread in the computer section here with her question and the advice that wasn't working well. I'm sure there's someone who can help.

i'm on win 7, but i don't think that matters, on mine i have to go into the webcam program ,and there is a button that takes pictures rather than using the webcam itself... mine is built into the laptop, and the program is called acer crystal eye webcam... maybe that can help

That's a great idea! I know there are some very smart people here.

Now, you see, that's what I was talking about. I searched in all these answers for the name of a program. On my Mac, it's called PhotoBooth, and it's hard not to figure out how to use it (It comes with the operating system). Thanks, Mo. Acer crystal eye webcam.

Nonetheless, the real point of the thread was about peoples' communications skills. Does anybody else have this same gripe?

it's kind of hard to communicate with someone overseas that don't know very much English...thats why i don't buy dell's anymore...

I think it's more that they know English, but that you can't understand their accent.

The things you were reading were not necessarily made by people that have graduated from college.

I agree that any graduate should be able to explain a reasonably complex process that others can understand, but then at the same time, communication skills is really just one aspect of intelligence. Plus when the process is something related to computers, the process will never be exactly the same for all computers, even if they have the same operating system, there are other factors which can affect things(firewalls, other running programs).

That's the perfect segue to some more things I had to say.

Back int the 70s, there was a book that everybody who was trying to be a hippie had to have on his bookshelf along with Kalil Gibran. It's title is Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. It is a difficult read. That is because the author, John Pursig, was a certifiable lunatic. He drifted in and out of lucidity. The lucid part of his book are brilliant.

Pursig made his living as a writer of technical manuals, and he had a lot to say about how peoples' ability to communicate are affected by the way they think.I remember him talking about the difficulties the Japanese had writing instructions for Americans who bought Japanese products owing to the differences between how Japanese and Americans think. I remember his description of a set of instructions. It began, "Assembling a Japanese bicycle is a very difficult thing"

I don't think you can equate a person's level of intelligence by how he or she uses a computer and its many technicalities.

I also agree with Moe. It's not so much as what program she uses but more of the type of computer or webcam. Find out what brand of computer she uses and the model, and search that. If she uses a separate cam, then look for the brand and model of the cam.

I agree completely. It's not about intelligence. It's about communications skills. That brings up another topic.

IMO, one of the worst consequences of the 90s tech bubble is that millions of very bright young people abandoned their education to get a technical degree in writing computer code. That just isn't enough.

maybe that too, but i was thinking they are only taught a limited amount of English, any it is a very hard language to comprehend... speaking and listening..

My company unfortunately outsources to India a lot. People complain about not being able to understand the people there, but it's more that they can't understand the accent. They actually have a lot of knowledge of the English language, though. Much better than some Americans I know.

I have to agree with Singmesweet.

I've worked with people from India before and their ability to memorize and comprehend difficult concepts (even in English) were phenomenal.

The accent thing is complicated. You can learn a fair amount of the language and still have it. English is not hard to learn if compared to other languages. My primary language is portuguese and i had no problem learning english. When i tried German i was in trouble.
Now to lose the accent completely? Thats hard! My accent is not very strong but its there.

I cant understand any accent, they drive me nuts.. But I am from australia and we dont have accents, so we are easy to understand.
It's all you other people who talk funny that make it hard on us

Most people think of communication as a "two-way" process. That is one person speaking and the other listening. Actually it's more of a three way thing. The person speaking has to communicate his ideas in a manner that the person listening can fully understand.
People that write manuals and man helps desks sometimes forget that they are talking to someone who may or may not be as fluent in tech speak as they are.

Here's the thing, PCs are more open than Macs, which makes giving a simple answer more complex. So, basically, if I understand correctly, sometimes it's not as straight forward or simple as one might think.