Experiences with non-techies

[soldier_ph]

Two of my Coworkers have complained to me over and over again that they constantly forget their Passwords and that they have to reset them but when I suggest them that I'd be happy to help with setting up a proper Password Manager like Bitwarden (which I use myself) they'll always straight up refuse and say that's too much work. When I then try to tell them that it's highly insecure to write down their Passwords on Post-Its they just get angry and walk away. Like you're coming to me with this very basic problem and I could provide the Perfect solution but when you just outright refuse my help you shouldn't then go ahead and blame me when something bad happens to your accounts.

[Bitter]

[DaBoi]

I was having a chat with a friend and they said they were building a computer. I ask for the budget and they say 1500 usd. They start of with cpu. They say Pentium. There reason was the name sounded cool. I immediately contacted the microcenter to help explain to them that the Pentium  is an absolute dumpster fire in a 1500 dollar pc. 

 

[wanderingfool2]

So a bit of context, in BC Telus called their internet packaged Telus Fibre (back when it was fiber to the sac boxes but not to the home).  All of the advertisements were always talking about fiber and bringing the fastest speeds. (Cable was quicker in most areas at that time still for download)

 

Family friend talk about getting Fibre and how it's so great because it's fiber to the house.  I mention that it's actually still slower than the local cable company, and he goes on about how I'm wrong because their commercials were talking about how it's fibre and the sales rep was talking about how he was getting their fibre connection.  Needless to say I didn't pursue arguing, but man it really shows how deceptive commercials and sales reps can really scam people.

 

*On a similar note, the cable company here is now advertising their service as Fibre+...we really need to the government to step in and stop these kinds of practices.

[CT854]

7 minutes ago, wanderingfool2 said:

but man it really shows how deceptive commercials and sales reps can really scam people.

It's just fascinating to me how dangerous marketing is when it can deceive people into believing something worse is actually better, and strips them of a frame of reference or relies on their analytical skills being weak enough for them to either not notice or not question it.

 

Obviously crap products are less dangerous because they're obviously crap. When you're using something you don't even realize is worse, especially something where you're being billed monthly, that just sucks away at you like a leech.

[Rauten]

User: "hey, my laptop audio is not working, I can't have Teams calls with anyone. The headset never works."

Colleague: "ok, bring your stuff here and we'll take a look at it" (we usually do support via remote control, but audio issues are a PITA to check remotely).

*User brings in the laptop, and only the laptop*

Colleague: "uh, and the headset?"

User: "Wait, you need the headset to check this?"

 

No, dear user, of course we don't need the headset to check for audio issues in your headset. We'll just sacrifice a lamb to almighty Satan and ask him to fix it!

[IPD]

6 hours ago, DaBoi said:

I was having a chat with a friend and they said they were building a computer. I ask for the budget and they say 1500 usd. They start of with cpu. They say Pentium. There reason was the name sounded cool. I immediately contacted the microcenter to help explain to them that the Pentium  is an absolute dumpster fire in a 1500 dollar pc. 

 

Ah yes, name loyalty--regardless of quality.  Like buying a Cadillac....Cimmaron (or Catera).  Or a GTX....1030.  Or anything labeled BMW, Apple, Harley-Davidson or XBOX.

[HanZie82]

7 hours ago, wanderingfool2 said:

So a bit of context, in BC Telus called their internet packaged Telus Fibre (back when it was fiber to the sac boxes but not to the home).  All of the advertisements were always talking about fiber and bringing the fastest speeds. (Cable was quicker in most areas at that time still for download)

 

Family friend talk about getting Fibre and how it's so great because it's fiber to the house.  I mention that it's actually still slower than the local cable company, and he goes on about how I'm wrong because their commercials were talking about how it's fibre and the sales rep was talking about how he was getting their fibre connection.  Needless to say I didn't pursue arguing, but man it really shows how deceptive commercials and sales reps can really scam people.

 

*On a similar note, the cable company here is now advertising their service as Fibre+...we really need to the government to step in and stop these kinds of practices.

Yup, that considered false advertising in many countries and is illegal in some of those.

[wanderingfool2]

3 hours ago, HanZie82 said:

Yup, that considered false advertising in many countries and is illegal in some of those.

We have false advertising laws here...companies just get around it by using misleading wording....because technically they say things like "we utilize fibre within our network".  or similar kind of stuff where I mean it's technically correct but people just assume that it includes fiber to their house

[da na]

mmmm

[IPD]

13 minutes ago, Mel0nMan said:

mmmm

Clearly, they are telling you to go fuck yourself if you have any problems.

[s_k]

19 hours ago, IPD said:

Ah yes, name loyalty--regardless of quality.  Like buying a Cadillac....Cimmaron (or Catera).  Or a GTX....1030.  Or anything labeled BMW, Apple, Harley-Davidson or XBOX.

It baffles me that people don't search for the good, cheaper alternative. 
I get buying Apple if you're into that (typing this on a Macbook so yeah). But All of the accessories? My pheripherals are Anker and Logitech, my screen is Samsung. Etcetera. 
You can add a lot to that list by the way. Bose, Marantz, any car brand out there, Acer, Starbucks... 

 

On 4/22/2022 at 7:02 PM, Mel0nMan said:

Yeah... they shredded everything including that one single WD blue and NVME. THEN put it through a degausser. Pretty sure they have no clue how computer data works. 
And they ground down the RAM. I find that really funny. As if it's not wiped when power is lost. 

A friend of mine actually did digital research work and, believe it or not, ram is actually 'readable'. How much use it is, that's a whole different matter. But it's not 'empty'. 

 

[da na]

I'm loving this new YouTube feature, it allows me to see all the ridiculous stuff people are searching.

Like who the hell searches for WinRAR downloads on YOUTUBE

[Quackers101]

9 hours ago, Mel0nMan said:

Like who the hell searches for WinRAR downloads on YOUTUBE

might have done something similar, mostly to know which site is legit.

some software has some obscure links.

[da na]

Toshiba can't spell "HDD" right apparently. Almost as bad as CMOS being misspelled on that Dell motherboard. I present to you... The Toshiba Hard Hard Drive!

(And no, it isn't meaning "Hybrid Hard Disk", there is no flash memory involved in this. And btw, these drives are unreliable and slow - and too cheaply built/light to be used as doorstops. My least favorite drives to find in recycled systems.)

[Avocado Diaboli]

4 hours ago, Mel0nMan said:

Toshiba can't spell "HDD" right apparently. Almost as bad as CMOS being misspelled on that Dell motherboard. I present to you... The Toshiba Hard Hard Drive!

 

(And no, it isn't meaning "Hybrid Hard Disk", there is no flash memory involved in this. And btw, these drives are unreliable and slow - and too cheaply built/light to be used as doorstops. My least favorite drives to find in recycled systems.)

 

That's just part of the serial number. That's what "S/N" stands for. You can see on other pictures on the web that the "HHD" part isn't universal.

[da na]

This very incorrect information on a hard drive listing...

[AudiTTFan]

On 4/7/2022 at 10:04 PM, OfficialTechSpace said:

During the heatwave of 2021 in Canada, my dad unplugged all of our flatscreens and cable boxes because he thought they were heating up the house.

 

To be fair, it was over 40°C outside...

To be fair the CCFL backlighting in my 2009-ish Sony TV generates more heat than many purpose-built heating devices

[AudiTTFan]

On 5/16/2022 at 5:48 AM, IPD said:

Ah yes, name loyalty--regardless of quality.  Like buying a Cadillac....Cimmaron (or Catera).  Or a GTX....1030.  Or anything labeled BMW, Apple, Harley-Davidson or XBOX.

"The Catera simply confused Cadillac buyers by being small enough to fit in a modern garage" -Doug DeMuro, 2013

[da na]

5 hours ago, AudiTTFan said:

To be fair the CCFL backlighting in my 2009-ish Sony TV generates more heat than many purpose-built heating devices

One of my monitors is CCFL (free, can't complain). It gets hotter to the touch than the actual computer, and before it's warmed up it flickers quite bothersomely.

[Bitter]

1 hour ago, Mel0nMan said:

One of my monitors is CCFL (free, can't complain). It gets hotter to the touch than the actual computer, and before it's warmed up it flickers quite bothersomely.

And CCFL eats power compared to LED backlit screens. I'm actively only buying LED backlit now for 2nd hand. In fact I probably won't take CCFL free either. 

[da na]

1 minute ago, Bitter said:

And CCFL eats power compared to LED backlit screens. I'm actively only buying LED backlit now for 2nd hand. In fact I probably won't take CCFL free either. 

Luckily, I don't pay for power in my dorm. (If I did I wouldn't be rendering so much either)

[da na]

On 9/9/2016 at 5:34 AM, Dabombinable said:

Here's a new one. My Aunt refuses to let me put a QX 6850 in her desktop when it currently has one of the first LGA775 Celerons. I couldn't even convince here to let me at least install a Pentium 540, or my 65W Pentium 4 631. And its the same with the MX400 x8 64MB as well, which I was going to replace with an (custom cooled) FX5500 256MB-which also doesn't have a seized fan unlike the MX400.

Ah, reading back through this thread...

The 65w 631, nice CPU. I recently upgraded from the 86w version of the 631 to a 661, it's actually still usable. 

[12345678]

pretending like I know everything

 

when almost all the time I don't know wth I am doing

[CT854]

19 minutes ago, 12345678 said:

pretending like I know everything

 

when almost all the time I don't know wth I am doing

Fake it till you make it my friend

 

Nobody ever knows what they're doing, unless they do