Keyboards gone wrong

[Yfandes]

Hi all I'm new here, and a big fan. I work as a marine scientist/technician on a lot of oceanography projects. A big part of my job is making sure computer systems work when put out to sea. I'm not a proper geek (no formal training), but I spend a lot of time building, testing and troubleshooting systems.

So I get this call one day from a colleague (so if this should be in the other forum, my apologies). We work together a lot even though we are on opposite coasts.

C: Colleague
Me:

C: Sea? you have to help me!! How do I change my keyboard!?!
Me: Wha?!?
C: My keyboard settings!! I accidentally set my computer to a Dvorjak keyboard!
Me: Why?
C: It doesn't matter why!! But evaluations are in, and mine was horrible, and I'm working on a rebuttal.
Me: How?
C: I opened notepad and typed in all the keys, and now I'm copying and pasting each individual letter to make a rebuttal, but its taking too long and I'm going to miss the deadline!!
Me: uh, well lets see... (I forget what I did but it was about 3 minutes of figuring), try this.
C: Oh thats it!!! Thank you Thank you Thank you!!! Bye!

The kicker? Shes our software writer/developer. And we *have* to use Windows, because she can only write programs for Windows. And she was arguing with an evaluation that probably said that her knowledge wasn't up to snuff or something

[technical.angel]

Don't you just love when a luser changes something, and then CAN'T FIGURE OUT HOW TO CHANGE IT BACK????

And, to correct you, if you spend a lot of time building, testing and troubleshooting systems, that makes you a proper geek. Lack of formal education with it just raises your level of geekdom.

[Geek King]

Ditto what tech angel said, you're a proper geek. Welcome to the herd.

Working tech support on an oceanography project sounds incredibly cool. Congrats on the position!

[Pedersen]

Gotta agree with GeekKing and technical.angel. You're a computer geek. If you take them apart and put them back together for fun, you are definitely a computer geek, through and through.

Add in that you're dealing with oceanographic projects, and you're doing something out of the ordinary with it, which makes you a cool geek. Way to go

[MadRocketScientist]

yep, all true geeks are self trained, certifications are only acquired by the true geek in order to get past clueless HR weenies who have a need for some paper to pass you on to the hiring manager. True geeks never openly admit to certifications. If a geek is telling you all about their certifications, they are known as "Paper Admins" and are looked down upon until they have proven their salt (I had to work with one of those, she drove me bugnuts).

[lordlundar]

True enough. The people who flaunt them probably took the courses for them and know the theory. Of course, any true geek will tell you theory and practice are two entirely different things.

The true geeks challenge the test, then when the tester says that it's wrong, they go and prove their case. Successfully I might add.

[technical.angel]

The true geeks challenge the test, then when the tester says that it's wrong, they go and prove their case. Successfully I might add.

Like when my Intro to computers prof tried to convince me she created the term freeware for a test.

Dude, no.

[gunsage]

True enough. Lately, I've been going to Tech Skills so as to get my A+ certification (not that it was ever truly important to me before, but I get a raise upon finishing and it ensures my continued employment...besides, I'm not intimidated to take apart a computer anymore). The point is that with each and every question I have a tendency to knitpick.

There are some reasons the instructors might groan about (grammar, spelling, ambiguity, etc.), but others where I made recommendations on how to make the question better. For example, we had a question on a test-prep that asked what is the recommended way to clean the internals of the computer (or something similar).

There were two problems with this question that I effectively outlined for them. One, they said "choose two" after making it sound like it was only supposed to be one. Two, there were actually three ways that are recommended, but they left out one. Again, knitpicky, but if you read/understand the material, it's pretty easy and shouldn't be missed.

[earl colby pottinger]

True enough. Lately, I've been going to Tech Skills so as to get my A+ certification.

Wait till you have to write the A+ test itself. While mine was a few years ago some of the questions asked were:

A) Out of date. Computer did not work that way any more or advancement made what used to be hard easy.

B) Wrong, wrong, wrong and wrong. All the answers were methods that were inferior to the way I already did it at work.

C) Silly. The answers were requiring you to memorize something you would never commit to memory in the first place, you would just look at the customer's unit and figure it out in less than a second.

[otakuneko]

A+ is so worthless I leave it off of any resume or app I put in, unless the job posting specifically mentions it. I've also heard of HR people trashing resumes that list A+ as a qualification.

Even so I went and got it, if only to have it for those job postings that actually mention it. I bought a book with practice tests, just to see if there was anything on it that might throw me for a loop. I did them, then went out and got it.

[gunsage]

Honestly, I enjoy what I'm doing to get my A+. This is primarily because I'm in an environment where I have to know about computers, but I don't actually take them apart and upgrade them or anything. As a result, my computer is massively underutilized, at least in my opinion. That and up until recently, I was more worried as far as shocking myself than anything else.

I was really surprised how simple it really was to do everything in there. Plus, at the very least, I plan to use the education assistance to get my Network+ and Security+. I'm not sure if I'll get anything else before I start looking for more job opportunities. Technically, I could be programming right now, so I may want to start heading in that direction.

The other main reasons I'm taking Tech Skills for my A+ are...

- It's required for my continued employment (even though it's not TECHNICALLY necessary, because I don't service computers)
- It's an instant raise
- I took the Essentials test and got a 630...I can't BELIEVE I was that close to passing...it was devastating, so I want to make ABSOLUTELY SURE I pass this time

To be honest, I really want to get into game development eventually, but I want something to fall back on (thus, certifications, degree, etc.). Plus, I'm fairly certain I'll be having to book it to California if I want to invest in that...and THAT'S going to take some cash.

[Namrepus221]

BTW for those wondering what a Dvorak keyboard looks like and how it's different:

http://www.dvorak-keyboard.com/index.html

Believe me... using one of these things isn't fun when all you know is QWERTY