Why it's better to pretend you don't know anything about computers...

[GreyGeek]

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2ZUZYe

It starts with this:

and only gets worse, as the remaining series of cartoons demonstrate. I've experienced ALL of them.

I was up to supporting the Windows installations of about two dozen friends and relatives. When I started fixing the same box for the same problems for the umpteenth time I drew the line and said that I was no longer to wash windows. I told them that if anyone wanted my help they had to drop Windows and let me replace it with Linux (Kubuntu now, but started with PCLinuxOSS). All but one took me up on it. The calls for help dropped essentially to zero. All but a handful were around my age and some have died, but all who remain on this mortal coil have stayed with Linux. No infections, no hacks. Only an occasional hardware problem, and once a kid sticking a cup into the CDROM tray. Honest. All of them are on Kubuntu 12.04 and I've got another three years of freedom ahead!

[Qqmike]

Look GreyGeek, you know we all like each other here, and I respect your ideas about things, right? But this, WTH is this? I don't ever pretend this sh*. It's simple, see: I don't know anything about computers and I never did, right? So I'm not pretending, OK? I put that here for all to read. Now I gotta get back to Season #3/DVDs of The Sopranos.

;-)

[GreyGeek]

As long as you don't ask me to fix your Windows!

[oshunluvr]

My story: I was an air traffic controller in the FAA beginning in 1982. I was always into computers and programming. Most of you know that PCs started to become affordable and commonplace in the mid-80s. The FAA like many other businesses and government agencies started to use them about that time. I had no idea how much my own personal reputation had grown in regards to PCs until one day I was at the RADAR scope, doing my job, when I heard a man at the supervisor's desk ask loudly "Do you have a guy named Stuart in this area? We have a computer down stairs that we can't get working." He was a communications technician and they couldn't fix their own PC! My supervisor had me relieved and I went downstairs and fixed it. I realized that day that I needed to keep my hobby skills to myself.

My proudest moment was my dad was an architect and an early adopter of CAD. His old 286 (with a math co-processor, remember those?) had fallen so far behind he needed to upgrade. It took more than 10 minutes to refresh the screen! He needed a 486 but they were still very expensive in Missouri. Not so here in California so I built him a new box, shipped it out, and flew back to set it up for him. I connected all his peripherals - mouse, digitizer pad, 6-foot wide pen printer, regular dot matrix printer - and turned it over to him. The "requirement" was that it all had to look and operate the same (Dad was not a computer guy, but had to use one for work). His first test was to draw a few lines and then refresh the screen. At first, he insisted it wasn't working. Then he realized it was redrawing the screen so fast he couldn't see it happen! He was obviously happy.

Fast forward 6 years - time for his next upgrade. Computers were no longer cheaper out here and PC shops were everywhere. Dad bought a new pentium and trusted the local shop to get it set up. After a couple weeks of their failures they gave up. He called and complained to me about it. I flew back, he picked me up at the airport and drove me to his office. I had it all working again in less than an hour. Rather than heading back to the house, he drove down to the PC shop, walked me in, called the owner out from the back and introduced me by saying "This is my son. He did in 30 minutes what your guys have been unable to do for weeks. You need to hire him!" and we left.

[Snowhog]

My story: ....Fast forward 6 years - time for his next upgrade. Computers were no longer cheaper out here and PC shops were everywhere. Dad bought a new pentium and trusted the local shop to get it set up. After a couple weeks of their failures they gave up. He called and complained to me about it. I flew back, he picked me up at the airport and drove me to his office. I had it all working again in less than an hour. Rather than heading back to the house, he drove down to the PC shop, walked me in, called the owner out from the back and introduced me by saying "This is my son. He did in 30 minutes what your guys have been unable to do for weeks. You need to hire him!" and we left.

That is, at the same time, both sad (as in a comentary on the capability of paid 'experts') and hillarious.

[NickStone]

..."This is my son. He did in 30 minutes what your guys have been unable to do for weeks. You need to hire him!" and we left.

I take it they didn't offer you a job? Is the business still going?
Those computer "experts" in that shop sound like the same type of "experts" that work for a national PC store here in the UK. They don't have a scooby doo (clue) how to fix computer problems just interested in selling you new more expensive equipment.

[GreyGeek]

In my experience with the computer stores around here, the "experts" are usually just self-taught precocious high school kids working part-time for minimum wage. Some learn to toss PC jargon around in order to sound like they know more than what they do, but their first ploy is to convince the customer that their computer is "out dated and can't run the new software reliably, so they need to buy another computer". I usually ask the kid about Linux just to see how much he knows. The BestBuy kids just parrot the MS PR memo about Linux. Those who actually run Linux usually know what they are talking about. I knew which computers ran well with Linux and would ask to see those models. On one occasion Circuit City used a marketing trick to make the computer sound cheaper than they are. They'd give a price for the computer "without software". After they went through their line of drivel I'd say "Fine! I'll take that computer WITHOUT software". I'd get a dumb look from the salesperson, who would then reply, "You can't use computers without software!", and proceed into his MS software speal. I'd interrupt him and say "I have the software, I just want the hardware." (The difference in price was about $400.) "Pirated Windows is illegal" he replied. "I use Linux" was my reply. He had no choice. His bait & switch didn't work.

[mparillo]

> Fine! I'll take that computer WITHOUT software

So it's *YOUR* fault: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circuit...nd_liquidation

Seriously, I have never seen an American big-box retailer offer a computer without any software, and based on my survey of large on-line retailers the Microsoft tax is negative (that is they must receive more for their bloatware than they save by pre-loading and supporting Linux). $400 is amazing.

[GreyGeek]

Yup, It's all my fault that Circuit City short circuited! That Circuit City deal was the first and last time I saw a PC at a box store sold without an OS, unless it was a return or refurbished. I suspect that it was a bait&switch program because they knew that 99.999% of all PC buyers did not know how to install another OS and assumed that all PCs came with Windows pre-installed. The $400 difference was because the "package", besides Windows XP, included AV software and Office (or was it Word -- I don't remember?).