The Tech with the Magic Touch

[Jpurple]

OK, sometimes my husband just really annoys me. Take yesterday- I'd been getting a 'memory card error' from my camera all day (and missed some really good classroom photos 'cause the &*% thing wouldn't work) so I brought it home to get him to look at it. The instant he touched it, it worked perfectly- the memory card even showed the pictures that were on it from before that I hadn't been able to remove. I dont know how he does this- everything electronic that he touches- works! It's like they're scared of him or something.

On the other side of the circuitboard, there is our friend Mikey, whom we refer to as the 'Crash-test Dummy'. He can make a computer crash just by looking at it. On three separate occasions he has made ATMs die by sticking his card in. If Mikey can't crash it, it's in very good shape indeed.

I come somewhere in the middle of this electronics curve- Computers usually work for me, fax machines and photocopiers hate me, I have a love/hate relationship with PDAs and digital cameras.

How about you? Are there any other tech people with magic fingers out there, or is my husband an anomaly? I'd love to know:)

[ArenaBoy]

My dad is the neighborhood computer repairman. He is very profcient at computers and technology. When it comes to Windows machines, he is a wizard at them. When it comes to Macs however, they just throw him off. I have a Mac laptop that I use for school. The thing just likes to taunt him.

I'm good at technology myself, I grew up in a techie household. I actually taught my neighbor how to set a VCR when I was 5. I'm not that great with PCs, but Macs I am a wiz at.

[CanadaGirl]

Let's just say computers and anything else electronic that requires even the simplest programming, I adore. :D

[Der Cute]

Ok. That effect we call the "Genius Diffusion Effect".

Whenever a user is having problems doing X on Y machine, and we walk near Y machine, it starts working again.....Genius Diffusion.

Many a time users will be in midsentence to tell me what's Fubaring....and it works.

I just tell them, call us, it will work :) :) :)

Cute

[Jpurple]

So that's what it's called! I don't think I'm going to share that term with my husband- he's already quite smug about his tech magic, he doesn't need to hear the word 'genius' attached to it.:rolleyes:

[Dreamstalker]

On the other side of the circuitboard, there is our friend Mikey, whom we refer to as the 'Crash-test Dummy'. He can make a computer crash just by looking at it. On three separate occasions he has made ATMs die by sticking his card in.
:spew: That takes some sort of talent...

I'm a whiz with PCs, Macs stump me (probably because with few exceptions, it's hard to crack the case and poke around). The things will taunt me, I swear.

When my dad's computers/router/etc decide to go south, he just gets mad (ah, Type-A...). It seems that his computers can sense this as instead of working, they fubar themselves even more (likely the result of something he did to try and fix things without knowing what he was messing with). Nine times out of ten I can get them to work again (the tenth time results in butting heads as he doesn't want to listen to me and instead calls tech support only to berate them when they say to do the same thing I've been telling him for days...lo and behold, it does work).

I wonder if other computers can "sense" that I built my own and treat it like a baby ("I want Dreamstalker to fix me! She's nice!").

With my mom's machine, the opposite appears to happen. According to her, every time something decides to die, I had a hand in it (oddly, since I got my degree, this viewpoint has died down somewhat). The router/modem overheats? My fault. Computer needs better fans/more memory? My fault (how?!).

[Greenday]

I don't know A LOT about computers but I seem to do a decent job at fixing them. First day of college, when everyone was moving in, I seemed to be the floor tech, going from room to room to fix people's internet and such. I don't know, I just never seem to have problems with technology.

[One-Fang]

I wouldn't be able to stand the curiosity. What happens if hubby and Mikey both touch an appliance?

[Jpurple]

heh- since they both worked at the same computer store for a while, that happened on occasion. As long as hubby was there, usually the computer behaved itself. If he left and Mikey tried to fix something, more often than not it went *ZOT* and died or got worse. It's a very scary phenomenon!