Torture by computer course

[Eldmannen]

Who knew you could be tortured by computer courses?

So I am supposed to take this ECDL and it is killing me.

It is obviously crafted towards computer illiterate people.

It doesn't teach much of general computing concepts, but more how to use specific software applications (Microsoft Office) and how to exactly perform certain actions in named software.

There is this "Exercise CD" thing, and it has this slow-speaking annoying voice that says "Click on the Close button in the upper-right corner", "Click on the Start-menu in the lower-left corner of the screen" and stuff like that.

It tells me to click on the Help menu and select the Office assistant. Then Clippy comes up, and I am like oh god, please kill me.

People (read geeks) like me, can download a software that they have never used before, install it, and start use it immediately and know how to do everything they need todo. We instinctively know how todo things, and tops often need only a few seconds to find what we want, or few minutes to experiment and discover how todo something.

The test considers of a series of questions with 4 possible answers. If you take the test, you can't be sure to pass it without practice, since the questions are poorly and often have to do with exact location where to find something, or the exact name of something. E.g "Is it recycle bin, recycle can, trash bin, trash can?", "What is this specific thing called? Is it data screen, data view, or data mode?" and other annoying questions which you need to memorize all exact locations and exact names of stuff. "Is it view, show or display tools?", "Is it under Options, Preferences or Settings?".

Poor computer illiterate people who take this courses; if they use a different application, or the very same application but in another language (English as opposed to their native language or vice versa), or the same application but a newer version, they will probably be clueless on how to operate it, if some things got new names, been moved around and re-organized or have new icons.

Me sitting one hour in front of this, and I feel like a zombie, I am all tired, my mental stamina is all down, it is drained. I can't concentrate, I can't think. I feel like a retard. I just want to go home and sleep, I don't even want to go get something to eat. I don't even pick up the newspaper to read on the train back home, because my brain is in "brain-dead" mode. I go home, take off my clothes, and goto sleep. This despite, that the time is just around 11 in the morning, and I just got up some hours ago. I feel exhausted and really need to sleep.