Experiences with non-techies

[GrockleTD]

3 minutes ago, Schnoz said:

Kudos to Pearson My Lab and Mastering, the online software my summer precalc class used. Here are all the things Pearson did wrong:

 

- The URL is horrible: Nobody wants to type in pearsonmylabandmastering.com.

- You need to pay $100 to unlock the class, and transactions don't work half the time.

- DRM management in online textbooks. Each page has broken elements everywhere and takes ages to load, even on fast wifi.

- How it performs on slow af school wifi.

 

Pearson's online service is balls.

For my classes it take you 3 different webpages to access your textbook

[GilmourD]

On 8/16/2019 at 12:28 PM, Schnoz said:

School's started for me. Storytime!

 

Apparently, some kid broke his mobo and 1070. I heard that, while installing it, he became frustrated and slammed down on the back of the card with a screwdriver in his hand. The GPU mounting screws had not yet been installed yet. The end result was that he knocked a crapton of components off the back of the card and snapped the PCIe slot off the mobo. The slot also dragged a lot of copper traces out of the PCB, bricking it.

You know... Your stories aren't so much about non-techies but more about idiots with anger management issues. And how do you know so many people who build computers? 

[GilmourD]

2 hours ago, Schnoz said:

Kudos to Pearson My Lab and Mastering, the online software my summer precalc class used. Here are all the things Pearson did wrong:

 

- The URL is horrible: Nobody wants to type in pearsonmylabandmastering.com.

- You need to pay $100 to unlock the class, and transactions don't work half the time.

- DRM management in online textbooks. Each page has broken elements everywhere and takes ages to load, even on fast wifi.

- How it performs on slow af school wifi.

 

Pearson's online service is balls.

Pearson's existence is wrong. PARCC/NJSLA is a tragedy.

[GilmourD]

18 minutes ago, Schnoz said:

We don't talk about PARCC or NJSLA because those things never happened.

As I've said before, I'm the systems administrator for a public school system. NJSLA (formerly PARCC) is still very much a thing for me.

[soldier_ph]

My Brother is on a holiday trip in south east Asia:

 

Him: Texts my Mom that everything is Ok

 

Me: Asks her what the local time is there

 

Her: Starts Texting him

 

Me: WTF are you doing ??!!!

 

Her: Asking him what the local time is !

 

Me: No wtf, just Google it !!!!!!!

 

It's not just that but Like wtf, how is it so f*** difficult to understand that in the year 2019 you can Google literally everything ???

[The King of the Undead]

10 minutes ago, Pascal... said:

My Brother is on a holiday trip in south east Asia:

 

Him: Texts my Mom that everything is Ok

 

Me: Asks her what the local time is there

 

Her: Starts Texting him

 

Me: WTF are you doing ??!!!

 

Her: Asking him what the local time is !

 

Me: No wtf, just Google it !!!!!!!

 

It's not just that but Like wtf, how is it so f*** difficult to understand that in the year 2019 you can Google literally everything ???

I duck duck go it.

[Joluch]

My friend's mom keeps thinking that hackers have installed spyware on her laptop and are recording her. Every other weekend she would ask us to "wipe her system." No matter what kind of security software and reassurance we gave her, she would always dismiss it. Finally my friend got so fed up and got her mom a tablet without a webcam for internet access and disabled the WiFi on the laptop.

 

Her mom called next week saying that the landlord must have snuck in and installed spyware on the laptop that's now recording her and she wants us to go wipe her system... 

 

Sometimes it's not the technology that's broken. 

[Billy Pilgrim]

8 minutes ago, Joluch said:

Sometimes it's not the technology that's broken. 

I believe you are facing a problem on layer 8

[Guest]

35 minutes ago, Joluch said:

Her mom called next week saying that the landlord must have snuck in and installed spyware on the laptop that's now recording her and she wants us to go wipe her system... 

Well...   Maybe she's right, the mom I mean...  Maybe you should wipe her system ???

 

Spoiler

 

[D13H4RD]

Irks me more than it should, but anyone wanting to give advice to others should do a bit of research and information-gathering before they do so.

 

Because I've seen so many pieces of advice that don't make sense, such as suggesting someone who uses an EF-mount Canon DSLR (EOS Rebel SL2) to swap the EF 50mm f/1.8 STM for a Sigma 56mm f/1.4 DC DN, which I'm sure anyone who's known this lens, does not have a variant which is compatible with the EF-mount (that lens is made for the Sony E-Mount, Micro Four-Thirds and Canon EF-M mount, which are all mirrorless).

 

No one is born with such knowledge, so it's fine if you don't know about stuff like this. But good God, please ask and fact-check your answer before you give advice unless you want to look like a colossal fool who wants to look smart, but isn't.

[GilmourD]

On 8/19/2019 at 8:28 PM, Kaloob said:

They changed the name?

Yeah, that's about it. The test is otherwise very similar. NJSLA is only for New Jersey. Not sure what it's called in other states.

[WkdPaul]

/r/TechSupportGore is one hell of a place ...

 

[Bitter]

Thankfully all I deal with is our inept secretary installing malicious and suspicious browser extensions, except that synchs to the accounting laptop...so the boss goes and tells at her "I didn't install anything" ok yeah so WatchTV.TV extension installed itself magically during lunch? Sure.

 

Do that shit on your damn iPhone!

[Trinopoty]

Most people at my city think of graphics cards in terms of amount of memory. If you tell someone you got say a 1050 2gb card for 250$, they'll tell you that 2GB graphics cards cost only about 70$ (some old radeon and some old 900 series). They don't understand the concept that GPUs have any processing power difference.

Also, all PSUs are the same no matter the power rating and think I'm a stupid for buying a 200$ PSU when the chinese model (450W) retails for as low as 25$.

Some people also think wireless is the pinnacle of internet and think I'm weird for using a wired connection with my laptop at work (I laugh when they complain about slow internet).

[NunoLava1998]

37 minutes ago, Trinopoty said:

Most people at my city think of graphics cards in terms of amount of memory. If you tell someone you got say a 1050 2gb card for 250$, they'll tell you that 2GB graphics cards cost only about 70$ (some old radeon and some old 900 series). They don't understand the concept that GPUs have any processing power difference.

Also, all PSUs are the same no matter the power rating and think I'm a stupid for buying a 200$ PSU when the chinese model (450W) retails for as low as 25$.

Some people also think wireless is the pinnacle of internet and think I'm weird for using a wired connection with my laptop at work (I laugh when they complain about slow internet).

I can understand all of that, but are you buying some super high wattage 80+ titanium psu for it to be 200$? Mine was about 70$

[Trinopoty]

36 minutes ago, NunoLava1998 said:

I can understand all of that, but are you buying some super high wattage 80+ titanium psu for it to be 200$? Mine was about 70$

Corsair HX1000I costs slightly more than 200$ where I live.

[NunoLava1998]

Just now, Trinopoty said:

Corsair HX1000I costs slightly more than 200$ where I live.

Ah, you got the HX1000i. My CX550M was 74€ and my SFX Power 2 400W was 79€

[Trinopoty]

30 minutes ago, NunoLava1998 said:

Ah, you got the HX1000i. My CX550M was 74€ and my SFX Power 2 400W was 79€

I had to upgrade because my XFX 750W one couldn't deliver enough power for my Vega 64.

[JohnMc45]

Kind of a twist on this topic but funny. 

 

Helping my mom buy her first laptop. So we are in BestBuy looking at laptops when sales guy comes over to help.  Mom tells the sales guy she needs a new laptop as she is going to a Red hat convention.   Sales guy spends the next 5-10 minutes thinking that my mom works for Red hat (the software company) or that she is a hacker. Mom is oblivious to this and is talking about the Red hat as in old ladies in purple clothes. Then there is me trying not to laugh my ass off as neither one catches onto what the other is talking about.      

[Brennan Price]

I work as an IT technician for a school. I have heard a lot of hilarious phrases, knowledge and ideas, sometimes it is very difficult not to laugh whilst explaining how something actually works. Today however, is a glorious day when all of the Sh** hits the fan as staff members and pupils alike forget how to use IT equipment that they've now probably been using for years... This day my friends... Is back to school day after the summer holidays. 

 

The following comments are only a few of which I heard today or was in conversation with as I was trying to help an individual.

 

- "I get a lot of gibberish text whenever I open a document from another device, is it because I am using Windows 9?" - They were in fact using Microsoft Office 2013 on a Windows 10 laptop, and, they were trying to open newer documents not supported by Office 2013. Neither Office or Windows 10 were activated. 

 

- "I've just had my summer holiday and I was expecting my laptop to have been worked on over the holidays, why was it not worked on? Plus I'm still on Windows 7!" - They had indeed taken their laptop home over the holidays, I can do nothing at this stage. I had also sent a notice out about a month prior notifying all staff members that any laptop with Windows 7 on it will need to be upgraded to Windows 10, and, must be left in their office or classroom before they leave for their holidays. 

 

- "We're really sorry sir, but the laptop screen cracked when we closed the lid of the laptop and we're not sure why. We were just fed up with how long it was taking to log in" - The kid had in fact slammed the lid of one of our laptops from science, but he closed it on his poor friends hands as he still had his hands on the laptops keyboard. 

 

The result of today is 20 to 30 tickets on our help desk of things that all staff members were happy with when they left for their summer break. I am tempted to give up and never help some of these folks again, as lovely as they may be. 

[Apostle.-]

Dunno if this counts as non–tecchies, but regardless; I started at a new school this year and was wondering how much people knew about PCs here, or what the "PC People" are like. Well, now I know. As a preface: we have some kind of school bulletin where you can advertise yourself or something you wish to sell. Some kid was trying to sell the following rig for the equivalent of 1000 USD: 

• Intel i7 8700
• GTX 1060 3GB
• 8GB of DDR4 2666Mhz RAM
• Some Z370 motherboard. I don't know what brand, as it's in Chinese.
• 128GB M.2 SSD + 1TB HDD
• 400W PSU

I don't know about you all, but I feel that this is quite clearly a ripoff. I could build a PC for the same price that's at least 50% better. Maybe it's none of my business, but I feel bad for the person that ends up buying this PC for that price, and then later realises that they could have built it themselves for almost half the price (if not less). 

[GenDufour]

So, when I was on holiday with my parents a few years back, we were staying in a nice hotel in Austria.

One evening we decided to have a seat in the bar and enjoy the mountain view. On the table next to us there were two elderly couples having their best time of life. Suddenly one phone rang and the husband (I assume) handed the ringing phone to his wife. So she said all the stuff you'd normally say if you pick up your phone.......

Yeah about that....

She didn't pick up the call, until she opened the phone (an older flip phone), obviously the person calling hung up already.

At this point it's obvious to say that my parents and me were trying to keep a straight face. (Trying.....)

 

 

[soldier_ph]

Kids in school still using USB sticks (and losing them all the time, also they don't work half the time)  even though everyone has OneDrive. 

 

Also whenever I tell them what my hobby is, they always have to ask the same stupid Question: ArE yUo a hAcKeR ? 

 

#JustREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

 

[Drak3]

2 hours ago, Pascal... said:

Kids in school still using USB sticks (and losing them all the time, also they don't work half the time)  even though everyone has OneDrive.

Death is a preferable alternative to cloud storage.

[FezBoy]

2 hours ago, Pascal... said:

Kids in school still using USB sticks (and losing them all the time, also they don't work half the time)  even though everyone has OneDrive. 

 

Also whenever I tell them what my hobby is, they always have to ask the same stupid Question: ArE yUo a hAcKeR ? 

 

#JustREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

 

They probably don't have reliable internet at home, a lot of kids at my school don't.