demagogue on 23/9/2010 at 18:13
My personality tends towards the compassion & patience side of things.
The best way I've found to deal with someone technologically inept is to write each instruction down in outrageously, idiot-proofed minute detail, then require them to follow the instructions like 10 times on their own with me watching, and refuse to help them until they've done that. And usually it turns out that most problems are related, so if they get one down, it'll cover a lot of other problems too. It's just, once a person has cut and pasted a file from one folder into another 10 or 20 times on their own, no matter how squeemish they are or how much they bitch about not knowing what's going on, in my experience it works.
AR Master on 23/9/2010 at 18:31
anyone who cant recap paper with electrolytic capacitors and confuses an ECH81 tube with a EBC41 doesnt get ONE MINUTE OF MY DESERVING ATTENTION FEH FEH
graniteoctopus on 23/9/2010 at 18:34
I recall an incident where I was explaining to a girl several years younger than I how to set up and run a super Nintendo emulator.
I tell her very clearly to make a folder on her desktop called EMULATOR, and to create a folder within it called ROMS. She says she's done that. I then tell her to download said emulator and place it in the emulator folder, and to place the games she downloads in rom folder. She says she’s done that. I tell her to start the emulator, find the rom folder she made, load the game and she’s in business.
About 2 minutes later she replies saying she can’t find the emulator. I ask her where she placed it. She replies: "on my laptop". My eye twitches a little bit. I ask if she placed them in the folders I told her to make. She gets indignant with me and says I PUT THEM ON MY LAPTOP, WHAT DONT YOU UNDERSTAND? NOW WHERE ARE THEY!? I tell her that if she had just followed my easy to understand instructions she'd have none of the problems she’s having now.
She proceeds to explode and says that normal people don’t waste time with computers, and I only know this stuff because I’m a pathetic nerd and a loser. I laugh my balls off at this and explain that she asked for my help, and because she failed to follow my instructions she has now screwed up the whole procedure. I also point out it’s a bad idea to vent her rage at me, the only person who has the knowledge to fix her problem.
It’s at this point she blocks me on msn, so go figure.
Kolya on 23/9/2010 at 20:08
The fact that text-based net-conversations are usually recorded easily creates an illusion of evidence. As if being able to go back and prove that you said something would also prove that the other person HAD TO understand what you meant in the first place.
In your example "she said she's done that". Done what? Ask her to describe what she does, ie check if she understands what you mean. Retroactively trying to prove that you were right and she did wrong is very tempting. But it means falling prey to that illusion of evidence created by your own words. Of course you always understand what you mean.
But from her perspective she did everything just as you said, then it didn't work, then you got condescending, then she called you a pathetic loser and blocked you. And you didn't even get the flashing pics she hinted at. Everyone loses. :(
Sulphur on 23/9/2010 at 20:22
Sometimes, you've got to understand, people are just plain fucking dense no matter how clearly you may explain something.
It's all well and good to say that you need to check people's understanding of what you've said, but if a friend of mine buys a laptop and six months later fails at finding a file labelled 'SETUP' on a DVD's root folder even after I tell them exactly where it is, reconfirm they're looking where they should be, and how files are sorted alphabetically, I will have very little patience to extend towards them.
Renzatic on 23/9/2010 at 20:50
Quote Posted by demagogue
My personality tends towards the compassion & patience side of things.
This is me. I understand that most people don't have as much experience fixing computers, nor had the advantage of growing up around them. I'll treat even the simplest, dumbest problem as if it's no big deal, and that the mistakes they made are totally understandable. You can't expect to run before learning how to walk and all that.
Or at least this is me until you make the exact same mistake 5 times in a row. I'll use a friend of mine as an example here. He kept getting one of those hijackware fake antivirus suites. Understandable the first time. They're designed to freak out and entrap the non-tech savvy. But when you go to the exact same site, freak out over the exact same warning, and start taking me for granted...oh no. The breakdown usually something like this.
1st time: Hey, it happens to the best of us. I'll fix it up for you, no problem.
2nd time: Again? Alright. I'll fix it. Just be careful next time. You know what to look out for. Do this and this when it pops up, and you'll be fine.
3rd time: You're shitting me. Sigh. Alright.
4th time: Please tell me you're shitting me. PLEASE! And from the same site no less? Jesus, man. Are you doing this to piss me off? I could understand some passive aggressive vengeance bullshit. What I can't understand is you getting the same goddamn thing from the same site 4 times now in less than a week and demanding me to come fix it for you gratis. It takes me 2 hours of scanning and registry editing to fix it. That's 2 hours better spent on ANYTHING ELSE! I'll fix it for you, but this is the last damn time I'll be doing it here by the grace of my good will.
5th time: I want $75. No, you go fuck yourself. Take it to Best Buy, I'm not dealing with it anymore.
Mistakes happen. They're understandable. Even I do some boneheaded stuff on occasion. But making the same mistake over and over again in such a short period of time? No, that wears on my patiences rather quickly.
Did these people have to touch a hot stove eye 5 times and burn their hand to a charred lump of flesh before they learned not to touch it when it's on. Probably not. So why are they doing it here? The usual "oh, I'm totally computer illiterate hehehaha" excuse only works for so long before I start thinking it isn't a knowledge issue, it's a you're dumb problem.
Oh, and the surveillance systems I've installed. Every time I set one up with an internet connection for remote viewing, I'll go through the exact same spiel:
"Just because it's on a live line doesn't mean you can use it for the internet. Think of this machine as your surveillance system, not a computer. If you go online with it, then it is a risk you're taking of your own volition. Virus removal is not covered by your warranty, and repair charges are set at my discretion".
That should be enough to keep people in line. Yet 3 out of every 5 will call up a couple of weeks later with the same predictable problem. If they're nice, I'll give them a free pass, a smile, and discuss what caused the problem. But sometimes I'll get someone who paraphrases...
"I can't believe I paid $9000 for this piece of shit! I just downloaded Office 2002 and a bunch of movie shows from the Limewire, and now I can't even turn on the goddamn computer! FIX IT NOW OR I WILL SUE YOU".
...that's a $80 minimum fix, $80 per hour after the first hour.
Wow, I just realized I hate computers.
Harvester on 23/9/2010 at 21:25
I'm usually very patient because I'm no computer expert myself and I've needed help sometimes myself on complicated stuff.
A few years back, there was a lesbian woman at work whose computer I used to fix sometimes, it was an old machine and it became very slow and unresponsive due to the crap she installed and viruses, and I would re-install Windows 98 for her and the video and sound drivers and such. I didn't really mind and was patient.
But what I was very annoyed with was when some acquaintance of hers messed up my work. He/she (probably a he) decided that Win98 was too dated or for pussies or whatever, and that Windows XP should be installed. On a machine with 64MB RAM. I didn't even bother with it, wiped it and installed 98 again, and told her that her machine wasn't good enough for XP and that her friend should leave it as it is. But a few weeks after that, she called me and said her computer didn't work again, I got there and saw that the guy installed XP again! That was really trying my patience. I put 98 on it again, the guy apparently got the hint but now decided to install that buggy piece of shit Windows ME. I got half the mind to tell the woman that the next time she lets her friend mess up her PC, she can find someone else to fix it. I probably would've told her that if it happened right now, but back then I was a less assertive person and was afraid to get confrontational with her.
demagogue on 23/9/2010 at 21:56
Quote Posted by Renzatic
Did these people have to touch a hot stove eye 5 times and burn their hand to a charred lump of flesh before they learned not to touch it when it's on. Probably not. So why are they doing it here?
I guess it depends on what kind of porn we're talking about here. If we're talking about quality kink, a man's gotta eat and ain't got the time to pay attention to the popup.
Ok, aside from that being a joke, seriously speaking I can't think of anything worth being that obtuse over, whatever it is. And the really sad thing about the tech inept is that they're usually courting disaster for the stupidest stuff, where most of the malware is to begin with. My mother, bless her, can't resist every FW: SO TRUE!! video attachment that gets emailed to her, never mind you can just look it up on YouTube, it can easily host goodness knows what malware even if it passes the check, and it's 95% likely to be crap anyway that's not worth getting
paid to watch.
Kolya on 23/9/2010 at 23:24
Quote Posted by Harvester
A few years back, there was a lesbian woman at work...
Good thing you mentioned she was a lesbian. The story tends to play out very differently in my mind depending on such little hints.
SubJeff on 24/9/2010 at 00:01
Yeah, lesbians are the worst at computers.
then blacks, liberals and muslims
:rolleyes:
