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As you know, I work for my grandmother. I'm a licensed mortgage agent, I'm taking my real estate courses, and am going to be starting University in January. I do a lot of work from home, because I spend time with people and most of my work can be done at home. I do all her tech stuff (Such as managing her network, which involves an ancient 24-port cisco switch I picked up at a garage sale for 50 cents and sold her for $5)
I get this phone call today:
Me: Hello
G: Hi, the printer's not working
Me: What happens?
G: I clicked print around three times, it didn't work, and now nothing works, I can't even move the mouse
Me: Okay, well, can you press control-alt-delete (She has 55 IE windows open, because she minimizes instead of closing them)
G: Um, like control, then alt, then delete?
Me: Never mind, hold down the power button until the computer turns off, then press it once to turn it back on
G: Okay, the printers off, I'm still holding the switch to the off setting, but the computer stays on
Me: [facepalm, you turned off the printer used by an entire company because your computer isn't working, and this is your only network printer] Okay, turn the printer back on, now turn the computer off.
G: Okay, it's off, how do I turn it on?
Me: Press the power button, once
G: I'm holding it down, it's not going on
Me: Press it once, and let go.
G: Okay, I let go, it's on
Me: Okay, once Windows loads, log in and re-print your forms.
G: I logged in, and now it's printing, three times, what did i do wrong?
Me: You pressed print three times.
G: Oh, what does that do?
Me: [yes, the print button actually does something] Well, clicking print will print your forms, clicking it three times will print them three times.
G: Should I print it again?
Me: Well, how many copies do you need?
G: One
Me: Then take the other two, and if they're blank, put them in sample forms, if they're filled then put them in the recycling.
The idiot is real strong on this call.
I get this phone call today:
Me: Hello
G: Hi, the printer's not working
Me: What happens?
G: I clicked print around three times, it didn't work, and now nothing works, I can't even move the mouse
Me: Okay, well, can you press control-alt-delete (She has 55 IE windows open, because she minimizes instead of closing them)
G: Um, like control, then alt, then delete?
Me: Never mind, hold down the power button until the computer turns off, then press it once to turn it back on
G: Okay, the printers off, I'm still holding the switch to the off setting, but the computer stays on
Me: [facepalm, you turned off the printer used by an entire company because your computer isn't working, and this is your only network printer] Okay, turn the printer back on, now turn the computer off.
G: Okay, it's off, how do I turn it on?
Me: Press the power button, once
G: I'm holding it down, it's not going on
Me: Press it once, and let go.
G: Okay, I let go, it's on
Me: Okay, once Windows loads, log in and re-print your forms.
G: I logged in, and now it's printing, three times, what did i do wrong?
Me: You pressed print three times.
G: Oh, what does that do?
Me: [yes, the print button actually does something] Well, clicking print will print your forms, clicking it three times will print them three times.
G: Should I print it again?
Me: Well, how many copies do you need?
G: One
Me: Then take the other two, and if they're blank, put them in sample forms, if they're filled then put them in the recycling.
The idiot is real strong on this call.
I AM the evil bastard!
I have one that should've kicked the bucket long ago, yet still keeps chugging along, albeit slowly. Celeron 400 after all. It's gotten a little senile in its old age, no longer recognizing its original 4GB HD, and has been running Debian off a 2GB drive ever since. The hard drive is well past its life expectancy. This machine has seen Win 98, Win 2k, and three flavors of linux, running 24/7 for years. It just refuses to die. Its current duty is pretty light stuff though, running BIND9 and Privoxy to provide dns and filtering proxy service to my lan.
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