Experiences with non-techies

[Results45]

6 hours ago, Voluspa said:

Nah see. The moose gets the cookies from the Keebler elves and brings it to me. In return I get cookie crumbs to vacuum to the cloud. Apple does some weird compression stuff. Something about a zip, but my zipper is always up. Moose double checks that for me. Then I get full cookies to sell!

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

You must be one of those Swedeonamoose:

 

[Tedstonegenious]

On 9/18/2020 at 9:18 PM, Maury Sells Wigs said:

Trying to explain to my father that the Hoover didn't affect Wi-Fi got old...fast.

 

What's worse is for all I know he might have even be right all along and I was wrong.

 

Looks like I'm the idiot.

Looks like your father may have the post hoc ergo protcer hoc fallacy, where you asociate one thing with another merly because they happened in a certain order. (I got this vaccum, and then my wifi stopped working. Therefore, the vaccum must of messed with my wifi) also, even if you got a smart vaccum that can connect to the internet, there is no way a vaccum will cause EM interference in the 2.4/5Ghz range. Any interferance caused by things like to motor will be well into the kilohertz range if that. In fact, that is exactley what part 14 of the FCC sticker entails. 

[Morrie Sells Wigs]

2 hours ago, Tedstonegenious said:

Looks like your father may have the post hoc ergo protcer hoc fallacy, where you asociate one thing with another merly because they happened in a certain order. (I got this vaccum, and then my wifi stopped working. Therefore, the vaccum must of messed with my wifi) also, even if you got a smart vaccum that can connect to the internet, there is no way a vaccum will cause EM interference in the 2.4/5Ghz range. Any interferance caused by things like to motor will be well into the kilohertz range if that. In fact, that is exactley what part 14 of the FCC sticker entails. 

I get it.

 

However, I did read that there might actually be something in the idea of it interfering with the Wi-Fi signal.

 

Are you saying that's impossible?

[Results45]

For people who like to leave all their devices plugged into USB ports and don't upgrade their PC in 7 years:

 

https://www.pcgamer.com/forget-about-usb-hubs-this-comet-lake-motherboard-has-20-usb-ports/

[birdjoy]

my mom thinking the cloud and a folder on her desktop is the same thing...

[Donut417]

7 hours ago, Results45 said:

or people who like to leave all their devices plugged into USB ports and don't upgrade their PC in 7 years:

For the record thats about the life time for one of my PC's. I work on the "If it aint broke, dont fix it" mentality. Hell my old gaming rig is still in service from 2013 as a Plex server. While I think that might be a bit excessive on the USB ports, I have ran out of ports in the past. At least you know you're not going to run out. 

[Tedstonegenious]

On 9/20/2020 at 7:53 PM, Maury Sells Wigs said:

I get it.

 

However, I did read that there might actually be something in the idea of it interfering with the Wi-Fi signal.

 

Are you saying that's impossible?

EM interferance has to be done at the same (or atleast very simmular) frequency of what you're trying to interfere with. This is because what a radio (the lifeblood of every wireless devide) does is listen to one specific frequency and filter out the rest. So something that generates a 500khz signal not will not even touch something in the 2.4/5ghz range. which is what wifi operates under.

[Morrie Sells Wigs]

4 minutes ago, Tedstonegenious said:

EM interferance has to be done at the same (or atleast very simmular) frequency of what you're trying to interfere with. This is because what a radio (the lifeblood of every wireless devide) does is listen to one specific frequency and filter out the rest. So something that generates a 500khz signal not will not even touch something in the 2.4/5ghz range. which is what wifi operates under.

Then the old man was talking rubbish and I was right...cheers, mate.

[Quinnell]

Imagine not knowing the difference between username and password field.  I dealt with that once.

[Franck]

On 9/21/2020 at 11:55 PM, Results45 said:

For people who like to leave all their devices plugged into USB ports and don't upgrade their PC in 7 years:

 

https://www.pcgamer.com/forget-about-usb-hubs-this-comet-lake-motherboard-has-20-usb-ports/

that is nothing if you have lived in the times where token ring network was a thing lol

[Andreas Lilja]

On 9/19/2020 at 8:07 PM, Koeshi said:

Some people don't want/need/afford a smartphone.  Why is it an issue if people don't want to spend money on a luxury item?

In 2020 it's more of a tool than a luxury.

 

Might as well have no bank account.

[mclusty]

Great old story from an old teacher of mine who previously worked in IT Support:

 

An old lady called them to help her with her pc, something wasn't working with some software she wanted to use. This story is old enough for the issue to involve a floppy disk.

They asked her to send them a copy of the floppy disk and she literally went the the library, photocopied both sides of her floppy disk and mailed them the printouts. 

A+ for effort but I don't think that's what they meant.

[Koeshi]

19 hours ago, Andreas Lilja said:

In 2020 it's more of a tool than a luxury.

 

Might as well have no bank account.

Its really not.  I've had times when my smartphone has died in me and o have had to go back to an old feature phone.  All it really does is reduce the amount of time I spend on Reddit and reading manga.

 

Also, some people still manage without bank accounts.  I don't know why they do it, but its possible.

[Results45]

31 minutes ago, Koeshi said:

Its really not.  I've had times when my smartphone has died in me and o have had to go back to an old feature phone.  All it really does is reduce the amount of time I spend on Reddit and reading manga.

 

Also, some people still manage without bank accounts.  I don't know why they do it, but its possible.

 

Yes it's possible, but 99.8%+ of people earning more than $40,000 a year likely have a bank account or have opened one with the initial intent of storing $$$ there.

 

Some subsisting off sub-minimum/minimum/minimum+some wages might not though.

 

That's where bank alternatives come in:

 

[Briggsy]

when someone is asking you if now is a good time to buy a new PC or laptop, and you tell them to wait for a month because Zen 3 processors are coming soon, and they proceed to tell you "yeah but there's always something new coming out soon that's better than what's available now." 

 

I mean... they're correct in the long-term, but getting non-techies to understand product cycles often backfires as there's no way to explain it without sounding like you have an agenda of some kind, or that you've got a few screws loose.

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

3 hours ago, Koeshi said:

Also, some people still manage without bank accounts.  I don't know why they do it, but its possible.

This is what I was thinking...

 

[Results45]

No joke. Introducing......the re-usable Apple iMask.

 

 

Honestly though, I would buy a pack for $25.

[Tedstonegenious]

On 9/24/2020 at 12:19 PM, Koeshi said:

Its really not.  I've had times when my smartphone has died in me and o have had to go back to an old feature phone.  All it really does is reduce the amount of time I spend on Reddit and reading manga.

 

Also, some people still manage without bank accounts.  I don't know why they do it, but its possible.

I would agree thats its more of a tool now also. Yea, there are luxary features in pratically every smartphone. But most buisneeses assume you have a phone, and they plan on you having one. Most resturants don't give a menu anyomore, they just have a qr code on the table for you to scan. And many buiisnesses rquire you to have 2fa on your accounts, a pracice I agree with and it hard to do without a phone. The latest and greatest tends to be expencive, duh. but it isn't that hard to get one that'll do the job for cheap. 

[Tedstonegenious]

On 5/22/2020 at 4:56 AM, Teddy07 said:

disclaimer: non native english speaker

My father has a very high opinion of an electrician and praises him all the time for his knowledge and skill. He ignores the fact that he regularly screws up which leads to my father paying to solve his screw ups.

My father asked this guy to have a look at my sisters PC because she wants to connect it with her old TV through HDMI. The problem is that her new RX480 has HDMI 2.0 output and it only shows a black screen when connected with the TV because it has only HDMI 1.4. The electrician recommended that my sister swaps the power supply and replaces the GPU with a gtx 1050ti. She would have to pay a total of 210 € for having worse gaming performance and still having the same issue since the power supply is already good enough and the gtx 1050ti having also HDMI 2.0 output. I was honestly speechless but my fathers opinion of this guy hasn't changed one bit.

 

How did I solve it?

My sister connected the HDMI cable to the HDMI port on the motherboard. It however has to be connected with the HDMI port on the graphics card

 

I take this issue as the largest proof of people's refusal to read. I have yet to find a single motherboard/computer manual that does NOT at least three times in bold font, to not plug the hdmi port into the motherboard unless you have a prosessor with a igpu. 

[CommanderAlex]

When you see someone say you're buying a PS5 and have this in the marketplace ad....for $599.

[Lii]

That you should trust their experience and not what's written literally on the company webpage

 

Frankly I've heard/seen a lot of stupid things, but what makes me mad are those types of guys who act with conviction over this, and deal with you like you were the idiot

[CoffeeBlacker]

Teaching a summer class at Ball State U...as a tech person.  Content is Microsoft Office... The class is composed of professors.

 

In to the part of the class where we are doing some basic excel.  An older prof raises her hand, and i walk over to look over her shoulder.  She says, I can't open the excel program.  I say, ok, lets take the mouse, and double click on the folder we've put on the desktop for this class.  She picks the mouse up, taps it against the screen two times...  I blinked, did not laugh, did not smile...and i say, Yep, nope...lets put that back down there, and move the mouse around, you see the little arrow moving around?...

 

Anyway, i have a few stories...but that one i consider one of my favs, and I feel like i did a damn fine job not laughing my ass off.

[Quivz]

My mother keeps everything on the desktop. When i upgraded her machine yonks ago, i moved her from Windows ME to 7 with a new build. She made me put everything from the old desktop on the new desktop in a folder called "old desktop". Not long ago i upgraded her machine again. There is now a folder on the desktop called "old desktop" that contains a folder called "old desktop". I got curious recently. The highest tier had a last modified that matched the day i did the upgrade. The lower tier was around the time she moved to windows 7. She's never opened either folder again. I've nearly convinced her that she should move to windows 10 and expect to be making a new "old desktop" folder soon.

EDIT: I almost forgot that on the initial computer when she finally ran out of space for new icons she bought an external hard drive because she thought that meant the hard drive was full.

 

There was a time she thought the sound was broken and when i came round it was a driver issue. I dont remember the exact conversation but i do remember only realising days later that must have been why she left the room, came back and put her drivers license on the desk next to me. At the time i thought she must have been prepping to do something that required id when i had finished. I imagine she still thinks her drivers license fixed the sound issue.

 

She constantly complains about voices on the tv being too soft, but wont raise the volume because "no, its loud enough".

 

She's convinced her 2008 bravia had hdr and i must have broke it when i connected the wii for the first time. She's also convinced her 2016 LG had hdr (her model doesn't have hdr) until i plugged in the PS4.

 

My dad thought the whole internet was owned by bill gates and was stored in a big industrial structure called "Silicon Valley".

 

And the one that really gets me down, people who think they're tech savvy because they can (barely) use an iPad, but still think Wi-Fi and internet are the same thing... 

[Quivz]

Actually there was also a time back in 99 when i was alone in a school computer lab at lunch. I had just needed to print something and the IT teacher had been cool with it and left me to it. After printing i had the humorous idea to make a quick powerpoint slide that simply said "Virus" in big letters and then changed the font to one that flashed different colours. I started the slideshow and left the lab. The next day, that lab was closed and the IT guy was formatting all the computers in that room.

[Godlygamer23]

4 hours ago, Quivz said:

Actually there was also a time back in 99 when i was alone in a school computer lab at lunch. I had just needed to print something and the IT teacher had been cool with it and left me to it. After printing i had the humorous idea to make a quick powerpoint slide that simply said "Virus" in big letters and then changed the font to one that flashed different colours. I started the slideshow and left the lab. The next day, that lab was closed and the IT guy was formatting all the computers in that room.

Why wouldn't they validate the presence of actual malware first?