Why I Will be on the Evening News Someday

[Geek King]

Me: Evolved from Nerdling
User: Nice enough, but just never quite grasps the computer thing.

Me: Purgatory IT desk, this is Geek King.

User: Heya! I'm trying to save this letter I just made changes to, but it saying I don't have permission to save it.

Me: Okay, where do you have it saved? I'll see if you have permission to change things there.

User: Microsoft Word.

Me: <Brain reboots> Um...okay, but where do you open the file from?

User: Microsoft Word.

Me: <facepalm> I mean, where is the file if you had to tell me where to go get it?

User: Look, its in Microsoft Word. I guess I don't know what you want from me.

Me: <Long explination on the differences between programs and data files that I won't repeat here as you probably heard it in Intro to Computers 099>

User: <Tone of finally getting it> Oh! I guess that would be my My Documents folder.

Me: <Walks user through a Save as... and wonders if this is why the Norse came up with the idea of the Fenris Wolf eating the world. Wishful thinking?>

[teh_blumchenkinder]

at least user understood after your explanation. Some have not.
:shudder:
(also, user was not a raging twat a la flambe', nor was user too proud, nor was user a ditz. Merely lacking in data, hopefully it will stick.)

[Geek King]

at least user understood after your explanation. Some have not.

True, but then I used to work in an office where the average user was a female above the age of 50. Not exactly the most computer literate social strata, individual exceptions aside. I got very good at teaching basic computer skills in easy-as-possible terms. I think the female to male ratio in the office was 40:3 at one point, and two of those males were myself and my coworker in the IT/server room.

On the other hand, it was often like having thirty grandmothers, or so.

[technical.angel]

Well, having 30 grandmothers can be good, or very very bad.

My next door neighbor has pretty much adopted me as her own. I can expect a phone call from her if I'm not at work when I'm supposed to be. It's good that someone's watching out for me, but if I stay home from work, it's because I'm sick.... and usually, asleep. It's not wise to wake a slumbering Techie.

[Geek King]

Well, having 30 grandmothers can be good, or very very bad.

Very much so.

The Good: Many of them liked to bake, so I'd often get homemade cookies and whatnot.

The Bad: Ever have thirty grandmothers asking if you'll ever find a nice girl and settle down?

That last might seem a little out of bounds for a workplace, but it was a very friendly place. The pay wasn't as good as where I'm at now, but there was less office politics when we needed equipment to keep things running. It was almost a shame that the owners got an offer for the business they couldn't refuse (we're talking stupid huge amounts of money) and the new owners promptly moved operations back to their office in Pittsburg, and laid everyone off.

[flyingember]

you could have used the recent documents feature in word to find exactly where it was saved at

[Geek King]

you could have used the recent documents feature in word to find exactly where it was saved at

Keep in mind that I was not at the user's desk. This was over the phone support. I was attempting to see if there was an issue with the folder permissions, or individual file permissions. Trying to walk the user through something I don't use very often, and the user wouldn't know what the hell I was talking about, was not the best choice at the time. Silly me for thinking they might know where their files were.

[Der Cute]

Or get super technical

Ok, go to start menu, bottom line type in CMD.
now with the scary black box type in C: dir
no, not see. C.
C! C! Ok.
now dir.

you see a big line of directories that hold the files and folders
Let's open the directory called Documents and Settings.
.....

Deer in headlights, anyone?

[Ben_Who]

One office I worked at was VERY old-fashioned. When, in the 1970s, they decided to move in some automation, they looked at the computer keyboards on the new equipment, scratched their collective head, and said, "Gee, they look like typewriters. ... Now, where can we find typists? Ah! I know! The secretarial pool!"

...All of which were part-time women with zero computer experience.

By the time I arrived on the scene in the early-mid-late-early-nineties, the office was staffed almost exclusively with middle-aged women who had never been given any real computer training and just followed a list of simple instructions printed on a sheet. (I arrived at the end of a ten-year hiring freeze.) There was one male working in the department who wasn't a manager, and he was promoted a year later.

When the last of these women retired, earlier this year, she had been working at the company for 25 years in various capacities and had never really learned how to use a computer or shown any interest in learning. She knew that when she clicked on the little picture on the thing that looked like a TV, stuff happened. She didn't know whether "stuff" was a folder opening, a program starting, or the computer going online to get something for her. What's more, her brain seemed to actively resist any attempts at illumination. The principle behind what she was doing had entirely eluded her for decades. She didn't know whether a particular function was local or network. She didn't know the difference between a file and a program. If she clicked on the wrong thing and a different menu popped up than the one she was expecting, she was entirely lost and had no idea how to get back. And if an error message popped up - ANY error message - game over. The printer running out of paper was cause for a call to Tech Support.

Imagine if she applied that kind of wilful ignorance to driving a car. She'd never make it out of the parking lot.

Love, Who?

[dalesys]

Imagine if she applied that kind of wilful ignorance to driving a car. She'd be Jane/Joe Average on the freeway.

CFT. .......

[roothorick]

Keep in mind that I was not at the user's desk. This was over the phone support. I was attempting to see if there was an issue with the folder permissions, or individual file permissions. Trying to walk the user through something I don't use very often, and the user wouldn't know what the hell I was talking about, was not the best choice at the time. Silly me for thinking they might know where their files were.

I'm of the opinion that phone support needs to die a horrible, horrible death. This is the age of VoIP and remote viewing/control; why are we still trying to explain things using words shoved through severely band-limited microphones and crappy earpieces when we have the tools and technology to frickin' SHOW them remotely, right on their screen?

Yeah, if there's a network issue, VNC isn't gonna be available. But you don't have your car towed to the auto shop if suddenly the AC stops working, do you?

[Ironclad Alibi]

This is the age of VoIP and remote viewing/control; why are we still trying to explain things using words shoved through severely band-limited microphones and crappy earpieces when we have the tools and technology to frickin' SHOW them remotely, right on their screen?

Because on some support web sites the needed information is very difficult to find, it is on the web site at all. Many times I have tried to use a support web site to resolve a problem, but the information just wasn't there.

I have used many support web sites that do have the needed infomation, and I am very happy when that happens.

[roothorick]

Because on some support web sites the needed information is very difficult to find, it is on the web site at all. Many times I have tried to use a support web site to resolve a problem, but the information just wasn't there.

I have used many support web sites that do have the needed infomation, and I am very happy when that happens.

Not what I was referring to actually... I'm talking about using a sort of VNC-on-steroids with VoIP to take over the customer's computer to show them things or to fix things remotely. Websites can be nice, but in the end they're just documentation -- and documentation can't solve every problem.

[lordlundar]

People are paranoid. they feel that all their dark little secrets will be exposed if they let someone into their precious machine. And given the aspect that most people's definition of using a computer is pulling up a document or playing a game, the idea of someone able to get into areas of the machine that they don't know terrifies them.

So it becomes a choice: either let the tech in, fix the problem in a matter of minutes if not seconds, but run the chance of their secrets being exposed to the world (not all inconceivable to be honest, but there are laws in place...), or sit there trying to make sense of what the tech is trying to say, frustrating you both, but secure in the knowledge that your secrets are safe. For someone intrinsically paranoid (and it seems to be the ones with absolutely squat on their machines) and little to no knowledge of computers, the security aspect trumps it every time.

Now consider that the vast majority of users are like this. It's a feature that takes a fair bit of effort to implement, especially on a large scale, that would be used maybe 20-30 times a year out of the several thousand calls that are received in that same time period. It's just not worth the effort.

[Geek King]

why are we still trying to explain things using words shoved through severely band-limited microphones and crappy earpieces when we have the tools and technology to frickin' SHOW them remotely, right on their screen?

Because I already have a user that doesn't understand the difference between data files and program files. Do you really think they can handle their end of a remote access program? I have it available, but it requires the user be able to run a program I send them via email. Sometimes it is faster just to try and troubleshoot over the phone, especially if it is something (that should be) easy.