Title TK

Enjoyed reading your 'rant':). I've had several similar experiences with users who didn't know 1 geekish word... The agony when it takes more then 30 minutes solving a simple issue because of miscommunication...
Same goes for helping a non-geek by using a telephone... mission impossible if i might say.

To be honest, the lack of knowledge of non-geeks frightens me... I've literally seen people who didn't even know how to insert or even open a CD...

I'll keep an eye out for more posts.

A very interesting read; I recognize a lot of it. The things listed in the Techradar article as well.

This week I was at the company where I'd been an intern before, they asked if I could get some software up and running (I'd left install install instructions, but, surprise, it only worked on XP whereas the newer computers were on 7).

I was surprised when the guy who called me told me that they actually had a virtual PC running XP on a 7 machine. Only thing left to do was to install the software on the virtual PC.

Then he asked me to place a shortcut to said virtual PC on the desktop, otherwise they'd have trouble finding it. That didn't actually surprise but what did grind my gears is that I had to change the shortcut's name (!) and icon (!!) to the software's because otherwise they still wouldn't get it.

Then one of the higher-up guys showed me an iPhone: "Yeah, I was talking to some guy about smartphones and I mentioned something made by Samsung but he said that the iPhone is better"
_{I don't recall the details of the conversation, sadly.}

Ha, always enjoy reading such articles I think most users that a) have family or friends and b) know how to handle a mouse have had this kind of questions. This topic on GoT gives an idea...

Basically, you should always try to get something out of the menial nerd's jobs. Doesn't necessarily have to be financial. Just doing stuff because you're the SPOC for any kind of technical problem isn't satisfying and will only lead to ranting (example above ).

Another very important rule of thumb is: know when, what and how much to communicate. If you tell people exactly what is happening (including technical terms) without them fully understanding it will only mean that in the future they will try to cobble together completely nonsensical gibberish with a couple of geek-words inserted somewhere and expect either you or another nerd to understand what they're saying. This is just a giant waste of time. Explain the problem in broad terms, explain what has to happen and how to go about that without using any abbreviations outside of layman speech and explain the possible consequences in terms of user experience, not technical details. Even more importantly: tell them the actual symptoms to look for if they think they have the same issue again so that in the future any follow-up can be communicated quickly and accurately. In any case never tell them how to fix the problem themselves, it will only make matters worse for the person who eventually has to fix it.

(they didn't know the car needed a magnetic collar to open it).

Well i too helped many ppl and i soooo disagree with all of you, ofcourse ppl dont know what a taskbar, start menu and desktop are, these are still technical terms that windows made up! Maybe not for you but for a person who uses rarely a computer it is. Just call it the ball with the windows logo (or flag) in it at the down left corner. For the word desktop i use there wallpaper and so on and so on, you really have to improvise. I have to admit some ppl cannot be helped, one time i helped someone over the phone for 10 mins after realizing he was not sitting behind his pc but after his 42 inch lcd which indeed was all black and stayed black xD

Nice post YO,

Enjoyed reading it:D

You actually came to the point to start fixing the problem. Patient guy!

Obviously, the anti virus was months over due

You meant the software had an expired license? This is true in most cases anyway.
At that point those "freely provided" Antivirus solutions turn into anoying adware. Which could also trigger a geek emergency if it get noticed.

Awesome reading!

So true... a regular day in the life of a geek LOL.
Man, this is why i'm done helping friends of friends (of friends)...
You fix the problem with blood, sweat and tears, turn your back and they've screwed it up again.

I can so relate to this!

I've been working in IT for 20 years and was heavily into computers since i was 6 years old and computers for most people were rare, expensive and most of all unnecessary. In 1982 there were few things that you could use the computer for that couldn't be done with another cheaper and/or easier means.

That's where the Nerd's perception, even in todays world, has its foundation. Not many people had a computer back then and the computers cost relatively huge amounts of money, which inspired the conception that computers were incomprehensably complex and therefore those who could use them or were even considered "very good with computers" must be very smart and intelligent.

Smart and intelligent equalled socially ackward and boring in most peoples minds which colored their opinion on the person behind the Geek which was validated, in their experience, by the fact that nerds not only understood how the computers worked but also enjoyed working with or on computers.

These foundations basically defined the perception of Geeks and continues to have an influence today. It created a barrier between geeks and "normal" people, which most IT professionals thought as a positive thing by the way, that also exists to this day. The most influential factor in this all is that last one:

Nerds consider doing what they do on the computer as its key feature, source of joy and primal purpose. "Normal" people consider the computer as nothing more than a tool they can or must use to achieve the goal they really want to achieve. They want their picture of their vacation printed on the paper so they can hang it up on the bulletin board ( yes an old style one with pins and stuff). They consider the computer and the motions they need to go through to get that picture onto that paper to be unwanted at least but to be totally frustratingly complicated, annoying, unnessacarily customizable and so on more commonly. To a Nerd the photo nor the print out of the picture on the paper are at the most a good excuse to be behind the screen and keyboard but usually they don't care at all about them. The process of getting the picture from the camera or source hardcopy into the computer, maximise the pics quality and way the printer is going to put in onto the paper ar by far the most important and most enjoyable part of the process.

That difference in perception of the same task is at the core of most of the annoyance, irritation and sometimes even conflict or agression that exists between the Nerds and the users. It effects how they think about each other and thus how they act towards each other.

For us its incomprehensable how a USB stick winds up being hammered into an hdmi port or why a tonercartridge for an hp would be forcifully tried to fit into a cannon printer. But "the user" cannot comprehend why a black toner cartridge for a Cannon shoud be different than one for an HP printer. The result on the page is the same and the sound they make while printing are simular, so why should they be different? Wouldn't it be easier and better for the environment (not to mention more cost effective) if all cartridges were the same, like tires are for cars? Think about it. Sure there's difference in tires. But there's almost always a range of tires that will fit to your car, and a goodyear fits as well as a Vulcan or a Pirelli. To "users" they're the same difference. Laserprinter for office documents, black toner cartridge. Opel Astra coupe, winter tires. Why would they expect different?

The same often applies the other way around by the way. I'll have a picture to hang onto a wall and i'll take a hammer, a nail and start hammering the nail where i think the nail should go. I'll be scoffed and ridiculed later when i tell my friend and show him the nails i used and he tels me that the solid brick support wall i had chosen to hang the picture on is too hard for regular nails and i should have used nails specifically for that type of wall. Or that i shouldn't have used nails at all but should have taken a hammerdrill, made a hole and put a plug into that hole into wich i would then be able to screw a screw on which the picture could be hung. (i hope the example makes any sense at all)

Or another example would be.... oil in cars. If i get told that i have to fill up the oil in a car i would be stupid enough to put oil for diesels in a petrol engine or but normal engine oil into the breaking oil or transmission oil without even considering there could be diffent oils for different systems or parts of the car. All i know is that if i want to go from a to be driving the car i need to put oil into it to keep it from breaking down. I don't give a rats ass about why i should use synthetic oil w70 or what the reason is organic transmission oil would not work in the engine and lead to the engine to seize. I don't even want to know about oil at all to be honest, i just want to get to B with a car that can take me back to A when i want or need it to, or to C if i should feel i need to go there.

Understand the point i'm trying to make?

Fortunately, or unfortunately in some views, the "normal" person of this era have a lot more knowledge about "computers" than they had even only 5 years ago. Most grow up having a computer available in their homes and wil be able to do most of the tasks they need or figure out how to do so with little or no help. They often understand the need for a connection to a network before they can send and receive emails. This helps them to close the gap between them and us but it provides with new challenges that i see emerge more and more often lately. The user interface has developed to enable the user to perform tasks in a way that requires little or no actions by the user and simple ones if there is a need to do somehting. They know little, at least less and less, about what actually happens when they for example double-click the icon on their desktop that represents the monthly sausage saltyness test report they want to open or print. They know it will open the report to their screens, but nothing else. They have no idea that double-clicking the icon makes the computer to read the file name and the files location, then finds the location and requests that location (harddrive or networklocation) to allow the computer access to that location, then asks to be allowed to take that file on from that location into active memory, then orders the server to check if the computer or the user has the authorisation to open the file, then start to download the file to local active memory, then tell the server to idle the connection or close it, then put a notification onto somewhere the file is present in the active memory and can be shown on screen, printed out, opened into an application or changed and then to ask the user what the computer should do next. The user doesn't care to know about all those details let alone that each action i just describe takes upto hundreds of lines of progamming in a code that is more foreign to them then say Chinese (mandarin) or Arabic. They rarely are even aware anymore that computers know only ones and zeroes or that those ones and zero's reprisent either an on or of position for a transistor relais just like those computers in the museum have.

That understanding of the way a computer works, by ones and zeroes and by carrying out hundreds, thausands or even millions of commands that gets translated by the computer into a long and boring string of digital information which the computer then sends through as a string of ones and zeroes to another computer part, computer system, or other computer on another network or whatever is no longer required for working with computers. It is not even required to become a desktop support engineer anymore but it would make things more instinctive to learn and accept when broken.

Only those who remember the old days in which a mouse was at best an expensive extravegant luxury that could in some cases or software applications be used to enter data more exact or quickly but seldomly did anything or provided a feature that wasn't available by entry from a keyboard. Some people can't even imagine a computer without a mouse and remain blissfully incable of imagining how one would possibly open a file or anything without a mouse. My kid is still bot believing me when i show him the Leisure Suit Larry origional game and tell him he needs to type in the command the character must perform to get it to work. When i tell him he needs to type "Open door" for Larry to open the door but then have to enter another command for Larry to go through it his eyes go wide in disbelief. If i then show him the text adventures i played before Larry and Kings Quest he waves me off saying i'm crazy and that he's not falling for that asking if i think he is an idiot.

Okay he's only 4 so the whole language, writing and stuff isn't intuitive to him but i can assure you all that when he gets to the age i was at he will have to show me he can start a computer, load a filelist from a disk by keyboard, open a file from that list from keyboard and then start the file from the keyboard before he will be getting laptops, Gaybox or Xstations or pc's in his room. He will learn how to convert a picture into a bunch of numbers and stuff like that, before he gets to turn on the power switch, sit and wait, and then click the icon for the game to start.

Ow hack, i'm supposed to be making breakfist... i'm stopping with this reply..... bye! (forgot what i wanted to say when i started the reply anyway so......)