"I think I got your email but nothing came out of the computer."
My mom told me this right after she got a new computer at her home. She was used to a fax machine, where the messages "came out" and then you read them.
My mom now sort of knows how to use email, but to be honest she doesn't like it - the computer may hang and need rebooting, or the wireless network may need to be reset. So she often waits for her brother to come by for a visit and gets his help. Sometimes she even makes him READ the emails to her. (She doesn't have a printer.)
As I said in my last post, technology is still too complex, and I am always looking for things such as Pinger to make life easier.
Here is another service I really like - it is called, appropriately for my mom - "Presto." Presto is kind of like a fax machine. Your mom just plugs it into the phone line, and when you send her an email (even one with a photo of your new puppy), it automatically prints out on the device and is there waiting when your mom gets home. One of the best things about it is that it uses a "white list" approach. It will only receive emails from addresses in its addressbook. So it cuts out the spam that scandalizes your mom and just delivers messages from her kids.
Nice.
PS: It does not take huge imagination to realize that Presto could be used for business purposes as well.
[GlobalGiving]
