Experiences with non-techies

[Ceatra]

So I'm doing an internship at my local high school as a summer thing. Now, those of you who know what high school is like already knows that teachers aren't exactly the most technologically adept people.

 

On Monday, a teacher came down to the IT room to tell us that her computer was making a terrible grinding noise, and I was sent to her room to investigate. When I got down there, it was indeed making a terrible grinding noise, so I took it down to the IT room to investigate. After some back and forth-ing, we determined the cause.

 

The teacher thought it was the hard drive, and that her computer was dropped by the cleaning crew at some point. It was actually a straw from a can of air getting stuck in the fan.

At least he thought a little logic...

 

most teachers would assume that it was the "CPU"

[I need a better name]

I hate those "technicans"

 

They think they know EVERYTHING... but they know SHIIT!

read my signature

[Godlygamer23]

read my signature

Wouldn't it be more accurate to say "The people think they know everything, are really annoying for those of us who do"?

[I need a better name]

Wouldn't it be more accurate to say "The people think they know everything, are really annoying for those of us who do"?

i don't know what you talking about

[Godlygamer23]

i don't know what you talking about

To me, the grammar is a little off.

[I need a better name]

To me, the grammar is a little off.

lol youtube comments say it's ok.

[TheMechEngineer]

Our school was having "network issues" when we had to play a game. Because they were using an out of date flash plugin, so I got yelled at for trying to see if I could install opera, and of they are going to make me use a pc for 12 weeks, I better install my primary browser extensions; uBlock and for my sake in a school, Tunnelbear. I was caught "installing virus" despite you can't install anything unless you have an admin account. Then the next day I walk in, the same damn problem. Flash plugin not updated. Same bloody excuse; "our network is experiencing some issues", as they dont fucking know what is going on, despite the bloody fact that it says: Adobe Flash Player is blocked due to it being out of date, and of course the damn firewall wouldnt let me update that shit. On the first day of school, I went to the room, when in the middle of the class, the computers just shut off, most likely because someone bumped the power strip off button. as only a row of pc's turned off. Not everything. Simple fucking logic. And my biggest pet peeve is when someone calls a pc a hard drive, and they do that. ugh. Plus, they also should have REAL network problems because they have a server rack, with no UPS despite they are running that poor thing 24/7, and no casing, which someone could pull on wires, fall over and trip on a power cord, knock over the rack if they didnt know what it did, and many other things. So they should really listen to me for damn sure.

 

Reminds me of the time I installed the Duck Hunt game on my dad's work laptop.

When he eventually took it back, the other guys he was working with thought it was hilarious.

[NeatSquidYT]

Reminds me of the time I installed the Duck Hunt game on my dad's work laptop.

When he eventually took it back, the other guys he was working with thought it was hilarious.

Installed Duck Hunt? Surely you'd install an emulator not a ROM, unless you're talking about another game

[TheMechEngineer]

Installed Duck Hunt? Surely you'd install an emulator not a ROM, unless you're talking about another game

 

Yeah it was Duck Hunt for sure, but I think it was a re-make version that could be played on Windows.

Pretty sure I still have it on a DVD somewhere so I might look for it.

 

EDIT: Found it. It's called Duck Doom Deluxe, so yeah it's not the actual Duck Hunt game like I thought. Very similar graphics and gameplay though.

[soup]

Wouldn't it be more accurate to say "The people think they know everything, are really annoying for those of us who do"?

Nope .

  Your version means all people think they know everything whereas it is actually a subset of all the people.

The words WHO or THOSE can indicate a subset.

 

So either "The people WHO think..."  or "THOSE(colloquially THEM) that think" would be OK, but certainly not "The people think..."

[Akolyte]

My friend told me about a guy he was talking to on Steam who wanted to build his own computer. No big deal. My friend asked what his specs would be. Here they are.

AMD FX-6300

GTX980

H100i GTX CPU Cooler

6TB HDD Storage

500W PSU

 

Now you'll probably notice I didn't mention a motherboard or RAM or even a case. Get this. The guy wanted to buy a $500 pre-built, get the case (which is incredibly small yet an ATX and will probably not fit the 240mm rad at all), motherboard, and RAM, and then just buy the rest of it.

 

Oh yeah, and an FX-6300 with a GTX980?

No-Way-No-Nope-Sigh-Uhhm-Ehm-Yeah-No-Ugh-Ok-Whatever-Neil-Patrick-Harris-GIF-2015.gif

Those people that think no matter the cpu, more cores = better.  lol. 

I still explain its more about the core design and speed of the processor than cores these days.  More cores are better dont get me wrong, but a fast core makes more difference imo.  

 

Not really any stand-out moments, just general issues where other people don't know much about computers.

 

THEM: "I tried downloading this file, but can't find it."

ME: "It should be in the Downloads folder."

THEM: "Where's the Downloads folder?"

ME: "Just start up File Explorer and you can get to the Downloads folder."

THEM: "Where's File Explorer?"

I spent like a whole day settings up internet for these people, and then they forget their wifi password which was just their last name.  And they reset their router.  Now it wont connect.  Crap.  Still got to go there soon to fix it up  Calling the ISP again. 

 

I used to do home network and computer setup for the general public to make extra money and I had to stop before I lost my mind dealing with stupid people. And I mean stupid people who make your head hurt. You get a call, they cant get on the internet, show up and they didnt have the dam cat5 plugged into the computer. Their computer wont turn on, get there and the switch on the power strip is off... its why I drink whiskey!

I have a rough time dealing with kiddie scripts.  I'm not sure why, but every one of my clients at least someone wants to try and hack the system im fixing.  And almost always they fail.  Either they have a backdoor in the OS and its running in task manager, or they use some crappy tool  to dos the pc from their phone or something.  I'm not sure why, but its money.  Still, I've been thinking about joining the Army as a Systems Engineer or maybe the Airforce as a CIS Technician.  I have someone who wants to hire me to work for Wells Fargo network engineer and a security administrator.  But, working for the Army in IT.  Especially managing and securing communications and managing network security will come in quite useful.  

 

I was at an insurance company place and there was old ass PC's running Windows 98. IM NOT EVEN KIDDING. They were using office '97 and everything.

 

Edit: The PC's were actually made for Windows 98 as well, in case you didn't understand it completely (win 98 era pc's).

On the military advertisement. In the server room, I saw a row of 8 pcs running Windows XP.  And a row of servers.  What. The. Crap.   

 

Linux at least, Unix is optimal.  I understand a budget is a thing, but wow.  For the army!?  Windows XP?!?  They better have good firewalls.  And a heck of a lot of load balancers with all those ipv6 spam attacks.  (serious vulnerbility on Windows)

[Fgtfv567]

So I'm doing an internship at my local high school as a summer thing. Now, those of you who know what high school is like already knows that teachers aren't exactly the most technologically adept people.

 

On Monday, a teacher came down to the IT room to tell us that her computer was making a terrible grinding noise, and I was sent to her room to investigate. When I got down there, it was indeed making a terrible grinding noise, so I took it down to the IT room to investigate. After some back and forth-ing, we determined the cause.

 

The teacher thought it was the hard drive, and that her computer was dropped by the cleaning crew at some point. It was actually a straw from a can of air getting stuck in the fan.

 

 

At least he thought a little logic...

 

most teachers would assume that it was the "CPU"

Actually I would have assumed that it would be the hard drive failing too....

The straw caught me off guard

[RedOwen1177]

Actually I would have assumed that it would be the hard drive failing too....

The straw caught me off guard

I know! Grinding almost always indicates a failed HDD, but that is very tricky. Also, she used compressed air to clean it! Good for her!

[EthanTheFrogMan]

me "my computer is so heavy it has many drives in it"

 

mom "your sure its not gonna blow up right"

 

LOL just now

[STRMfrmXMN]

My mom bought some RAM today for her '08 iMac. Now these are the requirements from Apple so that her PC would actually work with said RAM.

 

You can use any Small-Outline dual inline memory modules (SO-DIMMS) that meets all of these criteria:

• PC2-6400
• Unbuffered
• Nonparity
• 200-pin
• 800 MHz
• DDR2 SDRAM

 

 

Now to get that RAM I tried to help her out so I gave her an Amazon link (with my LTT reference code, no worries) so that she could just buy what worked. But no, she had to find her way to amazon and put each of those search terms in there

PC2-6400 Unbuffered Nonparity 200-pin 800 MHz DDR2 SDRAM for iMac 2008 Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz OSX Mavericks  - this is what she ended up typing instead of just using the link I gave her (and no, I couldn't sneak in an affiliate link )

 

And yes, she ended up buying the RAM I originally suggested.

[Dude]

What an absolute moron...

EDIT: Changed pictures

[DarkBlade2117]

So once a week our college checks your book bag randomly. The girl pulls out the HDMI cord and screams for security because she said I was gonna go choke someone out with it... I explained to her what it is and started laughing as hard as possible.

[Pooherino ツ]

People always call a PC, a CPU. I used to do this too but now it annoys me as hell and every time I try to fix them, they always have that smug look on their face like "so what?" or "who cares".

[WkdPaul]

Sales reps here are using Note 4, got one rep telling me he's having problems, he's sometimes "logged off from his phone" (his exact words) .... not sure what he means by that, the thing is, non-tech people often don't understand the need for specific vocabulary, and that leads to techs trying to do guess work and trying to "devine" what the end user problem is ...

 

After a few questions it still isn't clear what the problem is, so I started asking specific questions about some settings in the mail app (sales reps here mainly use their phones to reply to emails), he seems to get even more confused by my questions in relation to his problem, not by the troubleshooting itself.

 

I finally understand that he's talking about; turns out he's talking about the Wi-Fi coverage in the office!!! Somehow he calls loosing the Wi-Fi connection "getting logged off"

 

... sigh ...

[MDPS]

My mom was having a friend over, and her son (right around my age) came along also. TBH I despise the kid (he's a huge smart alec) but tried to be nice and show him my rig. His exact words: "What? You can't build a computer. Only Bill Gates can build computers!".........let that sink in.....

 

Let me tell you everything wrong with that statement.

A: Yes I can build a computer

B: Bill Gates has never built a computer (full desktop that is). Ever. All of Microsoft has never built a computer. They build OS's and other software, and some tablets/phones.

C: Even if Bill Gates did build computers, no. He is not the only one who can. I wonder who the heck is Dell, Alienware, HP, ASUS, Apple, etc. etc. etc. They must be completely unknown to him.

 

And later I got called away to go help with my dog for a moment and left him next to my PC (huge mistake) and he sent the message "u suk" to most of my friends on Steam. Spent an hour explaining to everyone what happened and apologizing. -.-

 

Oh but I'm not done. I'm going to be teaching this kid software design later on because he wants to "build games" in...wait for it...

Friggen Java just because of Minecraft...

Our first lesson will be on computer etiquettes.

[Speedbird]

And later I got called away to go help with my dog for a moment and left him next to my PC (huge mistake) and he sent the message "u suk" to most of my friends on Steam. Spent an hour explaining to everyone what happened and apologizing. -.-

Account password and Win + L will keep people away.

[Fgtfv567]

 

B: Bill Gates has never built a computer (full desktop that is). Ever. All of Microsoft has never built a computer. They build OS's and other software, and some tablets/phones.

 

I refuse to believe that! Bill codes OSs, so I'm sure he's at least dipped his toes into hardware. And they've also built the xbox, which is pretty much a computer with weaker hardware, different OS, and uses a controller instead of a keyboard/mouse

[Guest]

friend bought a gaming PC

can't even name the specs

.-.

[Darkman]

Account password and Win + L will keep people away.

Since he doesn't know anything about computers I would've unplugged the power button as well. at that point time to add a lock to the side panel.

[roasted pinnaple]

so my grandma baught a new phone... because the last ones battery died and she thought it was broken