but you never TOLD me that..

[phillippbo]

I became the printer expert because when a certain message came up I knew what to do. The message? "Check Toner Cartridge" Do you know how many people asked what that meant? What do you think it means?

We run into stuff like this every day in tech support. What's sad is that 9 times out of 10, if someone asked me that, and my response would be "You need to check the toner cartridge", they'd immediately know what I meant. The problem is not that people aren't tech-savvy, that's just an excuse. My theory is that people are so deathly afraid of anything technological, that they lose any semblance of (un)common sense they might have. Somehow, magically, a human being saying the same words makes them understand. Go figure.

As far as printers go, and even the behemoth copiers that have been at the larger offices where I've worked, is that when you open up the panel (which is usually clearly marked as the only place with a handle), there is not only a pictogram of how to replace toner/ink or how to clear a paper jam, but everything else is color-coded (green = okay to touch; red = leave alone). On top of that, the green handles are numbered, so you start by pulling number 1, which frees the next part that you move with handle 2, etc. I'd never even run a copy machine and I took apart the huge Xerox monster at my first job in a call center to clear a paper jam and load the spool of staple wire.

Sorry, it's just getting to the point that I'm tired of hearing people claim they're not "computer literate" when all that's wrong is they're afraid of breaking it. It's not a supercollider with uber-sensitive parts. I promise, there's very little you can do that will break it, unless you force something. Rule of thumb: If it don't fit, don't force it and trust me, you'll be fine.

[JustADude]

It's not a supercollider with uber-sensitive parts.

Bah! Supercolliders aren't all that sensitive either. I have an uncle that was working one for years. It was made to be majorly solid.

[Auto]

And my favorite, RTFM (Read the f-ing manual!)

My dad used to always say: "when all else fails, read the F-ing manual." he learned it in the army.