How technologically adroit/inept are your parents?

[Lord Merciless]

My grandpa is approaching 90, can type, move and delete files, and play games. He's still competitive in setting high scores in Tetris.

My mom is close to 60 and uses computer for her work every day. Word, Excel, Email, and watching DVDs are her most common computer tasks. She even knows how to run simple Unix commands.

My dad only knows how to surf the web and use simple Word and Excel features.

[Datajack Franit]

My mother crashes her computer every damn month after installing all her stupid stuff on it
My father doesn't even know how to switch on a computer

[Caesar the Great]

my mom has a hard time operating an electric stove

[monolith94]

my dad works for the lotus division of ibm, he's pretty adept, and much more knowledgable than I.
My mom uses the computer for pretty standard things - email, typing, internet news, etc.
My sister is about the same as me, only a little less resourceful.

[KrazyHorse]

My father can click on icons and install things if there's a step-by-step setup process. He uses email and the modem to receive faxes on his computer. Can use a search engine adequately. Other than that he's pretty useless at it.

My mother is a mess. She can't even type faster than 3 or 4 words a minute (that's a serious estimate). Never mind actually opening Word herself...

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by Caesar the Great
my mom has a hard time operating an electric stove

Same here. When you get to the subject of the remote control, the VCR and the TV/VCR input selection button she's completely lost...

[Asher]

In order to help my mom out with our home entertainment system, my brother and I devised a really stupid naming scheme for the controllers as a joke.

We said stuff like:
"We SHAW it on TV" --> The remote with the Shaw logo on it is for the TV
"PIONEERS use soundto capture their prey" --> The remote with the Pioneer logo on it is for the audio receiver.

It was so utterly stupid it stuck in her head, and to this day that's how she remembers what remote does what...

On how to operate the DVD player and the VCR, I printed out a "task list" step-by-step explaining how to do it.

[The Mad Monk]

Mom, who is in her late 50s, uses the computer fairly well, even though she is practically on a first name basis with the HP support people. She writes letters, organizes things, uses quicken and online investment services, and make us all these nice personalized calenders every year. She also has no problem programming a VCR. All this from a high school grad who insists she isn't technologically savvy. Coulda fooled me...

My Dad is a chemical engineer who worked with (programmed) a few mainframes in the seventies, and has worked with databases, spreadsheets, email, etc. in the course of his business.

That said, eight years after I bought them a component stereo system, he still can't figure out the remote.

[Skanky Burns]

My parents are way above average compared to others here. My dad set up our first home network, installs OS's (even back in the DOS days), uses the internet, etc. He used to even program in basic. He doesn't know quite as much as me, but then he isn't in IT.

My mum is less adept, but is known at the hospital she works at as the "computer expert". She understands files and folders on different drives, uses email, the web, icq. She even can do limited troubleshooting when things go wrong (ie: the program isn't working, reset the computer). Not bad at all.

[Ramo]

My dad's an unretired electrical engineer, so he knows an unusal amount about working with computer interfaces relative to most people his age (pushing 60). I know he can use programs like Mathematica, which require fairly adept intuition about how to work with computers.

My mom knows basically nothing about computer interfaces. I have to explain to her, step by step, how to use her e-mail program every once and a while. She hasn't figured out how to program the VCR either.

[David Floyd]

Well, I'm OK with computers in the sense that I'm good with the Internet, I can install/uninstall/format, etc., and do basic troubleshooting, not to mention run most common programs and play games, but I'm totally useless for most other electronic/electrical stuff. I'm totally useless in terms of programming TVs or remotes, messing with the wires behind the TV, stuff like that.

[Jon Shafer]

My mom is pretty good (above average). She knows how to use Windows fine, word, the internet, etc. She also knows not to click anything when the virus warning goes off.

My dad is a computer programmer for United, and he knows more about computers than anyone else I know...

[cia]

My mom's last job was as a key punch card creator (enough said). My dad designed systems like the current US Post Office (macro scale) but couldn't really program. Just dealt with large computing systems.