[slightly OT] computerphobes - do they annoy you?

condra

Hey.

It just occurred to me today that Im very very impatient.

Then I thought, wait a second, Im probably not alone here. Theres people out there who have to deal with technophobes and idiots 5 days a week. Worse yet, there are people working in tech support who have to make a living out of talking to people, the majority of whom are idiots.

I call them idiots knowing they are not. Thats where my problem is. I consider people who dont know how to use a computer as idiots. It is wrong but I cant help it.

I did a design job for my sister. Shes an idiot.
She gave me the brief a few days ago, a little flash animation advertisement for a circus. She said she needed it by Monday morning.
I did it in Flash, zipped the file with the html page included, hosted it and sent her the link. She rang me this morning first thing, waking me up, crying that the file didnt work. It turned out she didnt have a recent version of the flash plugin for IE.
Then when she saw the ad she decided she wanted to make changes to the text and animation, even the timing, blissfully unaware what a major pain in the ass it is to edit so many elements of the flash file.
Why cant clients get the brief right the FIRST time?!

Then she started complaining to me saying that Dreamweaver would only let her open or save from/to the desktop! Jesus Christ. Get it together.

ARGHHHHHHHHHHH!

Theres so mnay other types that I passionatly hate.

This includes:

people who dont know what a right click is,
people who fill their deskop full of crap,
people who dont know how to change their desktop picture,
people who are scared they might break their computer if they do anything more adventurous than creatig a word document,
people who try to sell crap computers at astronomical prices because they think their computer is still worth the 900 they payed for it 3 years ago in PC world.
people who buy overpriced second hand computers,
people who dont know how to use bookmarks/favourites,
people who dont know how to use tabbed browsing or refuse to give it a try,
people who dont use CTRL XCV for editing functions,
people who double click on links on websites,
people who use the scroll bar on websites rather than the scrollwheel on their mouse
people who type slowly with one finger.

... and so much more..


it freaks me out. i hate that feeling when youre watching someone take 10 minutes to do something you would do in seconds.


ok rant over.

ShiverinEskimo

You are impatient and its important to remember that those people who do the things you describe above are not in the wrong. You are. I'd be the same but I don't hate them for it, I hate me and my patience limits.

I try to think of it like them sitting a PC is the equivalent of me being sat in an attack helicopter for the first time with no training. In other words - in over my head and feeling afriad to touch anything.

MunsterCycling

Nah just twiddle a few knobs, push a few buttons and of course !don't push the big RED button ala Dougal...

Cuddlesworth

womoma wrote:

people who fill their deskop full of crap,

people who use the scroll bar on websites rather than the scrollwheel on their mouse

Hey I do the first, and sometimes the second, does that make me a techno-phobe.

Besides that, how do you know a person cant use computers.

When they print out their e-mails to read.

PogMoThoin

OMG, How do you know my dad?

KdjaCL

But all of them potential customers when the inevitable Boo boo happens.

And to add when Cphobe has a problem and you charge them to fix it, do you impart knowledge or is just better to speak Swahili to them ?


kdjac

DonkeyStyle \o/

womoma wrote:

people who dont use CTRL XCV for editing functions,

Shift+Insert pwns ctrl+v IMO

SouperComputer

I love techophobes! Why? Because I'm great with them and a lot of them have lots of money

exactiv

DonkeyStyle \o/ wrote:

Shift+Insert pwns ctrl+v IMO

I love the internet.

Ruu_Old

Ah I've learned to live with them over the past few years. We've all had to put up with it. Indeed they do pay well.

ShiverinEskimo

DonkeyStyle \o/ wrote:

Shift+Insert pwns ctrl+v IMO

nah, no way. ctrl+v is a one handed operation - hand doesn't need to move from the mouse and the left hand barely has to extend. Plus you have all 3 operatiosn right there in X, C, and V depending on what you're doing.

Ruu_Old

PogMoThoin wrote:

OMG, How do you know my dad?

There can't be much worse than my old fella. Who else uses BOTH hands to use the mouse? (one to move around the mouse, the other to click the buttons)

ShiverinEskimo

Ruu wrote:

There can't be much worse than my old fella. Who else users BOTH hands to use the mouse? (one to move around the mouse, the other to click the buttons)

oooh - that IS bad. I'd actually find that harder to do than one handed.

DonkeyStyle \o/

ShiverinEskimo wrote:

nah, no way. ctrl+v is a one handed operation

So is shift+ins (right hand => right-shift + the ins key above the 4 arrows (not the numpad zero key))

hand doesn't need to move from the mouse

tbh, if I'm copying and pasting a lot, then I'm not going to have my hand on the mouse in the first place.
I find it handier than ctrl+ because I'm already selecting the text with shift+arrows/home/end/pgup/pgdn ... ins and del are right there beside them, so it's super sweet all together.
Shift+delete also works as cut, so you're laughing really.

ShiverinEskimo

Different strokes for different folks really. When I'm copying and pasting like that I can do it all with one hand on the keyboard and one on the mouse. Especially if i'm using excel (which I do constantly) where using the mouse to select the range of cells i need is quicker than the keyboard.

But this comparison ssays it all - everyone has their habits when using a PC that they find quickest/most natural. That's the beauty of modern computing - there's no one 'right way' to use them.

Heinrich

Oh, I'm big into paste/special especially for Excel and page layout programs. I also use paste into in Photoshop and paste in front/behind in Illustrator. Of course I would'nt have a clue as I am over 50.

I love the geeks who "tweak" whilst half standing. They usually f*ck up the machine and find some lame excuse beginning with "who was messing...":cool:

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

seamus

When I'm editing a document or a script, ctrl-v is much faster than Shift-Ins. I can see how the latter would be more useful for a left-hander though.

There's no point in getting annoyed about people who don't know how to use computers. You score big points by doing things which are patently simple for you, but beyond them. What annoys me more are people who think they know what they're doing, and end up breaking the things because they ignored a step or waded out of their depth without asking someone.

I find people are very funny with windows. If I'm fixing something I could have four or five windows open to help me accomplish one task. Normal users tend to only have one window open per task (word document, excel sheet, etc), perhaps two if they're copying and pasting. When I'm working away, people get lost very quickly. I've actually had one or two people scream at me to slow down when I'm doing two tasks with four or five windows open each

DonkeyStyle \o/

ShiverinEskimo wrote:

When I'm copying and pasting like that I can do it all with one hand on the keyboard and one on the mouse.

Oh yeah? Well I can do all my selecting/cutting/pasting with one hand on the keyboard and the other scratching my arse.
My shift+ins workflow allows for better multitasking, like drinking a cup of coffee or picking your nose with your free hand without wasting valuable man-hours.

DonkeyStyle \o/

seamus wrote:

When I'm editing a document or a script, ctrl-v is much faster than Shift-Ins.

Hmmph, maybe if you're a mouse-jockey.
keyboard selection ftw.
Try typing out a line of text, then hold shift and do home, delete, insert... that not fast enough for ye?
It's damn beautiful I tells ya... never have to leave the keyboard.

Cake Fiend

I'm not nearly as annoyed with people who don't know much about computers as the asshats who won't even make an effort. These people are allowed drive cars, have children, vote for a president, do a million things every day thousands of times more complicated than opening their own fecking hotmail, but put them in front of a keyboard and they're as helpless as an infant. :rolleyes:

The sooner you can't do anything without a computer, the sooner we can weed out these inferior specimens from the human race.

RobertFoster

seamus wrote:

I've actually had one or two people scream at me to slow down when I'm doing two tasks with four or five windows open each

I'm told I'm clicking too fast, the *computer* can't keep up with me

Cake Fiend

RobertFoster wrote:

I'm told I'm clicking too fast, the *computer* can't keep up with me

You use a mouse?? :eek:

/me wrinkles nose in disgust and returns to l33t bash terminal...

Cuddlesworth

Sico wrote:

I'm not nearly as annoyed with people who don't know much about computers as the asshats who won't even make an effort. These people are allowed drive cars, have children, vote for a president, do a million things every day thousands of times more complicated than opening their own fecking hotmail, but put them in front of a keyboard and they're as helpless as an infant. :rolleyes:

The sooner you can't do anything without a computer, the sooner we can weed out these inferior specimens from the human race.

Do you think other poeple may be thinking the same thing about you, say when you need to have a plug socket put in, and you pay some electrician to do it for a small fortune. For something that is for the most part simple.

DonkeyStyle \o/

Sico wrote:

but put them in front of a keyboard and they're as helpless as an infant.

Well there are an awful lot of buttons. :eek:

In answer to the OP though, no they don't annoy me... sure we were all clueless at some stage.
I remember when I was starting out, I'd ring up a friend of my bro's who knew about PCs, asking him newbie questions... now, many years later he rings me with his tech problems... funny old world sometimes.
As for people not even making the effort, I think it's more of a confidence thing than pure lazyness... some people are convinced they'll never understand, so not trying makes sense to them.
I'm like that with chemistry... don't talk to me about nucleotides and peptides and molecules bonding... I didn't get it in 3rd year science and I'm not interested anyway.

DonkeyStyle \o/

Sico wrote:

You use a mouse?? :eek:

I'm sure he meant his old school mechanical switch keyboard with the clicking keys.

TerrorFirmer

All valid annoyances but the only thing that really get to me is people waffling on when they don't have a clue...

Not so much places like DELL and Pc World misinforming which is bad enough but the ultimate, when I'm in work, someone has a really simple problem with say, a word document that won't open:

"Hmmm, try clicking it slowly...You're clicking it too fast, no wonder it won't open....clicking it too many times will slow down the entire computer"


"can't you merge the two together?"
"No. Absolutely not. They aren't compatiable."
"Can't you even try?"


And much worse. Some of the stuff you read in Dilbert is so ridiculous but its shocking how close to, and in some cases completely, true it is.

Explosive_Cornflake

I wiped the family computer at home. My sister was trying to play RA file, and was being a little bitch. I was like fine, **** and off and do it yourself. After a bit of complaining I dictated to her what to do whilst eating my egg. From the other side of the room I saw her Quad clicking firefox from the quick launch. I've tab mixed plus installed, and set to single window mode, and if you launch firefox twice at the same time it crashes it. More with me saying, you only need to click those icons once, followed by her telling me to stop giving out to her.
My friends looking for Internet explorer on my laptop when it's running suse. [Someone] constantly asking me how to copy a cd, me stelling them each time, followed by them asking me again.
The list is endless. Yeah they annoy me, but when it comes to family, my patience is quite thin. I'm probably a bit hard on them, but when they won't listen when you say it nice,.... no I'm not being too hard.

seamus

DonkeyStyle \o/ wrote:

Hmmph, maybe if you're a mouse-jockey.
keyboard selection ftw.
Try typing out a line of text, then hold shift and do home, delete, insert... that not fast enough for ye?
It's damn beautiful I tells ya... never have to leave the keyboard.

Sure, if you're working on a small piece of text. But if you're hopping about the document, you can't beat the speed and accuracy of the mouse.

leeroybrown

womoma wrote:

Why cant clients get the brief right the FIRST time?!

The client generally gets it wrong and the designer/developer generaly ends filling in the blanks for them. Most of the time gets wasted talking to the client trying to sort out small niggly details.

The only types of computerphobe who annoy me are the ones who feel the need to constantly waffle on about how they know nothing about computers and how computers always break for them, etc...

ShiverinEskimo

seamus wrote:

Sure, if you're working on a small piece of text. But if you're hopping about the document, you can't beat the speed and accuracy of the mouse.

My sentinments exactly. I can have the best of both worlds using the XCV.

I used to try and use the mouse as little as possible because I thought the same as DOnkeyStyle but with mice coming with a a keyboard's worth of buttons these days I much prefer one hand on the keyboard and one on the mouse. The days of only being to select and right-click with your mouse are over thanks to wheels, back/forward buttons, tilt-wheels, smooth-scroll buttons etc. (anyone with a logitech G5 or similar knows what I'm talking about). Modern mice have won back the fans they lost in the nineties with Windows keyboard shortcuts.

And like you say Seamus - when I'm working on large documents bouncing between any number of MS Office programs you can't beat the mouse for getting the cursor to where you need it quickly - never mind selecting large volumes of text or cell ranges.

DonkeyStyle \o/

seamus wrote:

Sure, if you're working on a small piece of text. But if you're hopping about the document, you can't beat the speed and accuracy of the mouse.

Pfff that's what pgup/pgdn are for.
And what's inaccurate about keyboard selection?
Once you get used to your repeat rate you can fly along and stop where ever you want.
tbh using the keyboard for everything makes me feel like I'm in the movie hackers... "I'm just send0ring an email to d34thm4st4r... hold on while I alt-tab over to irc, I have to lolz0rz at something"
Though in fairness fragging noobs with keyboard aim is teh funny.

Explosive_Cornflake

Jesus, lets not urn this into why keyboard short cuts are great. You have yours, and people have theirs. It's only going to run in circles from there.

DonkeyStyle \o/

You're right, this deserves a thread of its own.
Delightfully Seinfeldian though... I'd say George would be the keyboard guy, Jerry the mouse guy and Kramer would be the guy who panics infront of a computer.
*stares blankly into space as makey-uppey Seinfeld episode plays in his head*

Soundman

krazy_8s wrote:

Do you think other poeple may be thinking the same thing about you, say when you need to have a plug socket put in, and you pay some electrician to do it for a small fortune. For something that is for the most part simple.

And illegal considering by law you must have a certificate for any electrical repairs and installations occuring in your home.

Cuddlesworth

Not true, you need to have a cert to do anything with your fuseboard/mains. Besides I know more than many electricans I have worked with. And plumbers.

FranknFurter

My favourite one was one I got about eight months ago from a familly member (im ashamed to say).......

Him- "So, if you do hook me up with a wireless modem thingy, will I be able to surf the net from the garden like the girl in that ad on tv?"

-Me: "Well, I wouldnt advise it, but if you mean from the patio on a dry day just outside the patio door, then yes, I dont see why not."

-Him: "Even in the rain?"

-Me: "Yep, then ring me and pay me to buy you a new laptop."

-Him: "You mean I coud'nt? Then whats the point in that!?"

I decided I needed a ciggie at that point.

b

Peteee

krazy_8s wrote:

Do you think other poeple may be thinking the same thing about you, say when you need to have a plug socket put in, and you pay some electrician to do it for a small fortune. For something that is for the most part simple.

Bad one there.

How often do you have to put in a plug socket? Once every few years (Or something) and its not worth your while learning how to do it.

A lot of clueless computer users, use computers every single day, and they still cant work them. It's not as if they are dumb either.

L31mr0d

ah the ol ID10t issue. Simple solution, perform a user upgrade.

I don't mind people who need a wide learning curve for computers, but its the people that even after years using a computer have picked up nothing but the bare amount to switch it on and check there mail. Or the people who go out and buy the latest DELL because there neighbours have and seen the advert on TV, then use it again to only check there mail.

I've got patience for people with an intermediary level with computers, but complete beginners (the people who start with things like "so you going to feed some cheese to that mouse?") I couldn't even look at.

P.S: How many functions on your washing machine do you ACTUALLY understand or use. I use only 1, i'm sure the guys at whirlpool have a thread slateing people like me right now

CuLT

Actually, even people who have a rough time learning computer stuff don't bother me in the slightest, as long as there's some effort.

It's the people who actually refuse to learn that genuinely píss me off.

I work in technical support (student, part time), patience is a virtue, and I enjoy helping people who aren't too stubborn to learn.

condra

when i was about 18 and my brother got a computer i had to land running- one day i decided id find some porn on the internet. I accidentally made a picture of a topless girl the desktop wallpaper. That same day I had to hurry to find out how to change the desktop picture and delete IEs history.
Everything after that has been plain sailing really:P

K.O.Kiki

womoma wrote:

when i was about 18 and my brother got a computer i had to land running- one day i decided id find some porn on the internet. I accidentally made a picture of a topless girl the desktop wallpaper. That same day I had to hurry to find out how to change the desktop picture and delete IEs history.
Everything after that has been plain sailing really:P

pr0n has taught me everything I ever needed to know about safe surfing
Reminds me of when my dad changed my desktop to hentai to "teach me a lesson"; shocked me when I turned on the PC & my little sis happened to be looking the other way just before startup.
So I moved & locked/deleted (I forget which) his pr0n collection.
2Gigs, baby - you don't mess with savvy kids

seamus

I've discovered the one thing that all non-computery people annoy me with.

Spam.

If you're not comfortable using a computer, then you don't seem to realise that there's no such thing as an "off" button for spam. No matter how you try there is no such thing as a 100% effective spam solution. And some people just seem completely unable to comprehend that - if they're getting spammed, it's somehow my fault, or if I do something, but they still receive a single spam a day, I'm clearly not doing enough.

*sigh*

Blowfish

seamus wrote:

I've discovered the one thing that all non-computery people annoy me with.

Spam.

If you're not comfortable using a computer, then you don't seem to realise that there's no such thing as an "off" button for spam. No matter how you try there is no such thing as a 100% effective spam solution. And some people just seem completely unable to comprehend that - if they're getting spammed, it's somehow my fault, or if I do something, but they still receive a single spam a day, I'm clearly not doing enough.

*sigh*

And then they go sending 'funny' or 'quiz' emails to everyone in their address book.

zilog_jones

Or they reply to everyone in the company when there's an announcement sent out. For example, now everyone here knows that a certain person wants to increase their pension to €350 a month.

I'm not really annoyed by the apparent complete incompetence of some of the people at my job (though some of the "repeating offenders" are getting on my nerves now) - I'm more píssed off by the fact people get absolutely no computer training yet have a PC on their desk.

I'm one of the network administrators here, so my real job is keeping the servers and phones running, setting up new PCs, setting up other new stuff, etc. It's quite degrading when there's people asking me how to COPY FILES or create a new folder. I'm doing a degree in IT & Telecomms, not fookin education.
If people here were at least made do the ECDL or something, productivity would be so much higher and my department can stick to our real work.

But that's probably "too expensive". Sigh.

philologos

HavoK wrote:

All valid annoyances but the only thing that really get to me is people waffling on when they don't have a clue...

Not so much places like DELL and Pc World misinforming which is bad enough but the ultimate, when I'm in work, someone has a really simple problem with say, a word document that won't open:

Dell Technical Support told me to set the drive jumpers wrong, I figured it out myself in time.

PC World no offence to them but a lot of them can't even speak proper English let alone help you chose a PC. When I bought my last HP Laptop there they gave me the wrong charger like thats insane and annoying because as soon as I got home I had to go back there to get it

Cake Fiend

krazy_8s wrote:

when you need to have a plug socket put in, and you pay some electrician to do it for a small fortune. For something that is for the most part simple.

Not a fair comparison - I'm not liable to kill myself or burn my house down by attempting to learn how to use a PC. Also the fact that I'm not going to need to rewire something on a regular basis as pointed out above by someone.

seamus wrote:

I've discovered the one thing that all non-computery people annoy me with.

Spam.

If you're not comfortable using a computer, then you don't seem to realise that there's no such thing as an "off" button for spam...

I once has a moron almost in tears with me because of the spam he was getting in his hotmail account. He was adamant that the girl in the other internet cafe had stopped it before (I know the girl he's talking about, she could barely switch a computer on, she obviously just deleted the mails and told him they were gone forever). When he started getting impatient with me as though it were my fault, I told him to ring Bill Gates if he wanted someone to complain to :rolleyes:

zilog_jones

Sico wrote:

Not a fair comparison - I'm not liable to kill myself or burn my house down by attempting to learn how to use a PC. Also the fact that I'm not going to need to rewire something on a regular basis as pointed out above by someone.

If you know what a fuse box is, you'd have to be trying to kill yourself when doing something like that (unless the house is wired arseways). And even then your body shorting the circuit should trip the switch pretty quickly. Believe me - happened to myself when I was about 6 (crappy plug fell apart but I touched it not noticing), but luckily this was in Saudi, so it was only 127V, not 230!

ShiverinEskimo

It takes less time for 220v to course through your body than a trip switch to flick.

Electricity is faster than plastic. There's a reason its illegal to wire your own house without certification - its to protect people from themselves.

condra

back on topic though, I agree with everyone who said they are infuriated by people who dont make an effort to learn.

Seanmcn

womoma wrote:

This includes:

people who dont know what a right click is,
people who fill their deskop full of crap,
people who dont know how to change their desktop picture,
people who are scared they might break their computer if they do anything more adventurous than creatig a word document,
people who try to sell crap computers at astronomical prices because they think their computer is still worth the 900 they payed for it 3 years ago in PC world.
people who buy overpriced second hand computers,
people who dont know how to use bookmarks/favourites,
people who dont know how to use tabbed browsing or refuse to give it a try,
people who dont use CTRL XCV for editing functions,
people who double click on links on websites,
people who use the scroll bar on websites rather than the scrollwheel on their mouse
people who type slowly with one finger.

ALL OF THEM!! URRRRRGH!!! :mad: