Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Brain... hurts...

Collapse
This topic is closed.
X
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Brain... hurts...

    I guess I can't really describe this woman as "sucky"... Looks to be mid to late 60's. Pleasant enough but holy god, did she take the cake for "computer ignorant".


    In short: took her Apple to the Apple Store 3 times. Can't pull up web pages. Computer works fine at Apple Store. Logic concludes: internet problem.


    I spend five minutes trying to determine where her modem is. She swears she doesn't have one. Then spend five minutes trying to determine if she has a monitor and a tower or an all-in-one unit. Still no idea there.


    Finally come to the conclusion it sounds like her modem is on her desk next to the computer. (she's one of those people who describes the tower as a "box" and the monitor as "the computer" - *pops qualuude*)


    I'm trying to be helpful - despite the fact that we could get an easy service call out of it, I want to see if she can fix it herself. It literally could take her 2 minutes to fix the problem if her internet connection got a "burp" in the line. It happens to us a couple times a month because our town's infrastructure is shit and we get little power outages for a couple of seconds every week or two. Anyway, the conversation goes like this:

    Me: frazzled computer tech, need heavy drugs.
    CL: Clueless Apple Lady

    Me: So you unplug just the power cord from the modem and wait five minutes and then reboot the computer.

    CL: What do you mean reboot? (oh good - someone needs Synonyms.com)

    Me: You turn the computer off and back on again. Restart.

    CL: How do I do that?

    Me: Wha?

    CL: I never turn it off.

    Me: Okaaaay... but you said you took it to the Apple Store. How did you turn it off when you did that?

    CL: I unplugged it.

    Me: *screeching like a barn owl* WHAT!?

    CL: That's how I got it over there.

    Me: You should never turn a computer off that way unless there's no other choice! It could damage the hard drive or corrupt the OS!

    CL: How do I turn it off?

    (it's YOUR Apple! READ A BOOK! ASK AN APPLE TECH! DUDE, REALLY!?)

    *serenity now... serenity now... think of lakes, trees, three toed sloths, wombats, parsnips...*

    Me: You click on one of the options at the top of the screen. It's either the Apple logo or File, I think, then select "Turn off computer".

    (okay - granted, I don't know off the top of my head because I hate Apples but I could find it in 5 seconds if I had one right in front of me. I know enough to be dangerous, but have an Apple tech that works for me for anything major)

    Me: So unplug just the power to the modem, wait five minutes, plug it back in. Turn the computer off and then back on and see if you can get online.

    I repeat these steps about 5 times. I still don't think she got it.

    Said she'd try to do it and if it worked she'd call. Otherwise we'll head over Tuesday morning.

    Now, it could be the modem went bad or there's a bad connection or she doesn't have the modem plugged in properly, but 9 times out of ten any internet connection problem can be fixed this way.

  • #2
    Back when my Dad decided to get modern, he bought a computer. Doing the fair thing, Rob and I went up for the first weekend to set it up and teach him the basics for what he wanted to do [email, some light surfing] so we gave him a user login, and the screen for it had one icon EMAIL and the other one INTERNET. We set up netscape [holy shit I am old] with about 30 bookmarks to where he wanted to go and set up his email to pop. I typed out a list of explicit instructions on how to do stuff like print and email, print a page, how to reboot and when and how to scan for viruses. He was told never to just click on anything that popped up, and if he had any questions about something specifically to call me before clicking.

    Yup, I got a 70 year old guy [at that time] online, getting and sending email [his secretary had previously handled all his computer needs] and he did not get a single virus for close to 6 years.

    It did help that he understood how to follow a flow chart =)
    EVE Online: 99% of the time you sit around waiting for something to happen, but that 1% of action is what hooks people like crack, you don't get interviewed by the BBC for a WoW raid.

    Comment


    • #3
      She hasn't called back. So either it didn't work or she couldn't figure it out.

      I'll leave the choice to you, constant readers, but I think you already know.

      Comment


      • #4
        *puts on flame retardant*
        Sounds like a typical Apple user here... (I can say this as I am one, but damn)

        Comment


        • #5
          Consider

          Considering how she handles the computer I would not be surprised that she either:

          A) Also damaged the modem by plugging/unplugging it or even forcing the power connector into places it should never go.

          B) Does not have the power connected or if she does have power lights has not plug in all the needed cables ie telephone/cable to modem, ethernet to computer.

          C) And if all the above is correct that the Mac is not configured properly for her modem.

          Comment


          • #6
            I was thinking option B myself. I'll bet she never even plugged it in.
            They say that God only gives us what we can handle. Apparently, God thinks I'm a bad ass.

            Comment


            • #7
              Back when I had an amiga and an idiot roomie, she decided she wanted to see what games I had while I was at work. She grabbed my box of discs, and started to see what I had by shoving the disc in, letting it more or less load, deciding she didn't like the splash screen and popping it out. Thank the gods that be all she had was my working copies and not the source discs, she corrupted 89 discs before I walked in and caught her doing it.

              [you had to wait until it finished loading then tell the machine to unmount the disc, just randomly popping it out when the drive was reading was the fastest way to screw your data up.]
              EVE Online: 99% of the time you sit around waiting for something to happen, but that 1% of action is what hooks people like crack, you don't get interviewed by the BBC for a WoW raid.

              Comment


              • #8
                Quoth AccountingDrone View Post
                Thank the gods that be all she had was my working copies and not the source discs, she corrupted 89 discs before I walked in and caught her doing it.
                I hope she paid for a couple of boxes of new diskettes and learned to never touch your stuff again. That is if she survived you finding out what she did to your game disks.
                Figers are vicious I tell ya. They crawl up your leg and steal your belly button lint.

                I'm a case study.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Quoth Cia View Post
                  I hope she paid for a couple of boxes of new diskettes and learned to never touch your stuff again. That is if she survived you finding out what she did to your game disks.
                  Pretty much, with added groveling. I also refused to let her on my computer ever again.

                  She also had cognitive disfunction - she didn't drive, she took busses everywhere when she was growing up and simply could not handle a map at all. I had a dungeon game that I actually printed maps out for and she could not make the jump from seeing it on a page to being able to walk through - she would get into an intersection and spin around in place, and end up totally lost. Mind boggling. I would even try to tell her step by step, as in walk forward 5 blocks and stop. Turn right. Walk forward 15 blocks *sob*

                  She was just 20 [at a time when I was 43-44] so it was like having a kid of my own ... that I would have wanted to stuff back inside to finish brewing ... something was definitely wrong mentally I swear. You know the Crosby skit about 'Don't do that ... why did you do that? I don't know..'? Exactly like that. She never seemed to be able to think out the consequences of doing something.
                  EVE Online: 99% of the time you sit around waiting for something to happen, but that 1% of action is what hooks people like crack, you don't get interviewed by the BBC for a WoW raid.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    I hate people like that

                    Quoth AccountingDrone View Post
                    She was just 20 [at a time when I was 43-44] so it was like having a kid of my own ... that I would have wanted to stuff back inside to finish brewing ... something was definitely wrong mentally I swear. You know the Crosby skit about 'Don't do that ... why did you do that? I don't know..'? Exactly like that. She never seemed to be able to think out the consequences of doing something.
                    After a while I learned to expect some people to have the inability to follow instructions or make the type of mental connections you are talking about. These people should never use a computer if they are one of the following.

                    But it is not the lack of ability I dislike, it is people who will not admit that lack. They insist that they can do something they can not do and repeatly make things worse no matter how many times you tell them not to touch/change stuff.

                    However, equally as bad are the people who claim a lack of ability to try and get you to do the work yourself for them, but you know from other stuff they have done in the past that they have the ability.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Or... she doesn't have a modem, thus no internet to speak of. This wouldn't surprise me at all.
                      If I make no sense, I apologize. I'm constantly interrupted by an actual toddler.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Quoth raudf View Post
                        Or... she doesn't have a modem, thus no internet to speak of.
                        SC> Whaddya mean? I have an internet right here! See? It says MacBook Air right here on the side! That's a brand of internet!
                        "For a musician, the SNES sound engine is like using Crayola Crayons. Nobuo Uematsu used Crayola Crayons to paint the Sistine Chapel." - Jeremy Jahns (re: "Dancing Mad")
                        "The difference between an amateur and a master is that the master has failed way more times." - JoCat
                        "Thinking is difficult, therefore let the herd pronounce judgment!" ~ Carl Jung
                        "There's burning bridges, and then there's the lake just to fill it with gasoline." - Wiccy, reddit
                        "Retail is a cruel master, and could very well be the most educational time of many people's lives, in its own twisted way." - me
                        "Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down...tell you she's hurtin' 'fore she keens...makes her a home." - Capt. Malcolm Reynolds, "Serenity" (2005)
                        Acts of Gord – Read it, Learn it, Love it!
                        "Our psychic powers only work if the customer has a mind to read." - me

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Quoth raudf View Post
                          Or... she doesn't have a modem, thus no internet to speak of. This wouldn't surprise me at all.
                          That was my first guess. She thinks all she needs is a computer to get online.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Quoth Zippity Doo View Post
                            That was my first guess. She thinks all she needs is a computer to get online.
                            Possible - although it was my impression that at some point she did have internet access.

                            As I said in my OP, our town has a horrible infrastructure. My shop gets a couple of second power loss at least twice a week. Sometimes that's enough to throw the modem out of whack and we have to reset all our networking components. It wouldn't surprise me if she got a power loss and it ganked up her modem.

                            On the other hand, who knows if she hooked the thing back up properly when she got it home?

                            I'll be interested to see how this develops on Tuesday.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Follow up:

                              Well, it's not as simple as I thought it was. (when is it ever, I guess)

                              Sent Tech over to her house yesterday. He made sure everything was plugged in properly.

                              By the way, she had a laptop - not a tower or an all-in-one. She wasn't even able to communicate to me that she had a frigging laptop!

                              Anyway - Tech tries to go online - gets some sort of Comcast "garden wall" which basically means you're online but there's a problem with your account:

                              1. you've downloaded too many torrents

                              2. you haven't paid your bill

                              3. other


                              There's no way this woman has any comprehension how to torrent, so scratch that.

                              Either she didn't pay her bill or somehow her account got screwed up. Not the first time it's happened, surely not the last. So she just needs to call Comcast and hopefully they'll clear everything up.

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X