17/12/2007, 05:36 AM
Read this story about some experiences with people trying to help others with computers:
Quote:Will Edgar is an in-store tech for a local computer shop in Yamba, NSW. He recalls a mature-age uni student who stormed into his shop one day. "He had a whole stack of papers and asked me to look at his assignments to see why he kept getting them sent back. After looking at the first page it was obvious to me: he had been asked to ensure that essays were formatted with 1.5 line spacing. They were single-spaced, but he was putting in 1.5 spaces between each word. Intrigued, I asked him how he got the half space between the words. He looked at me like I was an idiot and said, 'You obviously don't know anything about Word. To get the half space you just tap the space bar really quickly for the 1/2 space!' ..."
Quote:It's amazing how end users get their ports mixed up. Anthony Markham was at a friend's house a few months ago. "While I was there, he innocently said, 'Oh, and while you're here Anthony, can you take a look at my computer. I can't seem to figure out how to plug in my mouse.' So I went into his study and had a look at his computer, lying on its side on the ground. I asked him to give me a demonstration of how he was trying to plug in the mouse, and so he walked over, grabbed the cord and started trying to shove it into the COM port! After some explanation, he figured out the difference between different ports being used for different things, and then I got the mouse working for him in not time at all. What worried me was later, during the evening he said, 'Hey, now you've done my mouse, you can fix up my keyboard as well!?'"