Posted on 09/26/2020 7:53:05 AM PDT by sodpoodle
Documented conversations between Tech Support staff and (technologically impaired) seniors....
Tech support: What kind of computer do you have? Customer: A white one... Tech support: Click on the 'my computer' icon on to the left of the screen. Customer: Your left or my left? ************************
Customer: Hi, good afternoon, this is Martha, I can't print. Every time I try, it says 'can’t find printer’. I've even lifted the printer and placed it in front of the monitor, but the computer still says he can't find it..
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Customer: My keyboard is not working anymore. Tech support: Are you sure it's plugged into the computer? Customer: No. I can't get behind the computer. Tech support: Pick up your keyboard and walk 10 paces back. Customer: OK Tech support: Did the keyboard come with you? Customer: Yes Tech support: That means the keyboard is not plugged in.
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Customer: I can't get on the Internet. Tech support: Are you sure you used the right password? Customer: Yes, I'm sure. I saw my colleague do it. Tech support: Can you tell me what the password was? Customer: Five dots.
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Tech support: What anti-virus program do you use? Customer: Netscape. Tech support: That's not an anti-virus program. Customer: Oh, sorry... Internet Explorer..
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Customer: I have a huge problem. A friend has placed a screen saver on my computer, but every time I move the mouse, it disappears. *************************
Tech support: How may I help you? Customer: I'm writing my first email. Tech support: OK, and what seems to be the problem? Customer: Well, I have the letter 'a' in the address, but how do I get the little circle around it? *************************
A woman customer called the Canon help desk with a problem with her printer. Tech support: Are you running it under windows? Customer: 'No, my desk is next to the door, but that is a good point. The man sitting in the cubicle next to me is under a window, and his printer is working fine.'
Depends on the typewriter. Before the advent of the Word Processor before Lotus and yes there were word Processors before Lotus and MS Word, electrical type writers became advanced than their mechanical counterparts. It got to the point where a typewriter had memory recording every press of a key and even had macro capabilities depending on the brand.
I once drove 40 miles to check the printer that wasn’t working. The office staff said it was indeed plugged in. It was plugged into a power strip that the maid had unplugged to run the vacuum cleaner.
Surprisingly this thing has come full circle and there are many many young adults now who know virtually nothing about computers and they are working or attempting to work in a professional environment where a computer is central tool in their job performance. Many companies these days just "assume" a young person has computer skills when a ever growing number don't. The days of needing some knowledge of how a computer operates and it's basic parts in order to use it are long gone. Young people just expect the computer to work and don't have the first clue of what to do if it doesn't.
“taught to enter two spaces after a period prior to starting the next sentence.”
I was taught that, and I do that. Hard habit to break.
I used to run an MTST in conjunction with an MTSC for word processing. Also a Mag Card. A Wang word processor before that.
Then came PCs and WordPerfect ... yay!
I knew a someone that was a Burroughs account rep. Local governments, fwir.
Lol. 300 baud. Certainly not web surfing worthy.
Lotus 123. Great program! The precursor to Excel. Whoever created it was brilliant. I use Excel 10x a day.
Apple TV is the pinnacle. What I dreamed WebTV would be.
“These one-liners have been around for years and they are pretty funny despite the idea seniors can’t use computers. We should be reminded it was people who are now seniors that created all this technology. Most millennials can’t engineer their way out of wet paper bag.”
I started in ‘IT’ in 1975. IBM model 50 traffic records computer was my first assignment. I retired this year at 70 after 20 at IBM. My problem is that I’ve gotten to hate the reliance on tech by many people. People have become increasingly reliant on machines and don’t want to do anything for themselves.
I like GPS but I know how to use a map and compass. I like the cell phones but I don’t block traffic while I’m caught up in my little social media world. It’s gone too far.
I dont care what anybody says about not putting 2 spaces after a period. I know it makes me old, but it makes documenrs so much easier to read.
By the way, I’m 65, still working 45 hour weeks and can spend all day and into the wee hours working on railway signal systems, so don’t you dare call me an old fuddy-duddy!
And on the subject of Lotus 1-2-3, my first work computer was a IBM PC Jr. 1-2-3 was the only program, so I wrote a macro that turned it into a word processor. I know what I’m doing.
Don’t you think that may have been kilobytes?
from 1986
computer hard drives 1986 from www.computerhistory.org
The IBM PC-RT had 1 MB of RAM, a 1.2- megabyte floppy disk drive, and a 40 MB hard drive. It performed 2 million instructions per second, but ...
i’m pretty sure i i is the difference between a megabyte and a kilobyte
The rule about two spaces after a period is still in play if you are working with a monospaced typeface such as courier or consolas. The editor was working in Times Roman, so even if you put in the spaces, the word processor would tend to undo your work. Also, in the book publishing business, we don’t have rge luxury of indulging in personal preferences, especially if the work winds up going ti typesetting who would have yo undo it all in QuarkXpress.
I use Excel constantly. The ability to pull data from Azure databases, SharePoint lists, and other sources and to combine datasets is powerful.
What do you like on Apple TV? I see it is $5 per month?
LOL.
I drove 100 miles to fix something they said I had to see to believe. They wouldn’t describe it.
The program displayed a spelling error on the screen. The developer had made a typo. Luckily, we had the source code and corrected the disaster.
I'm with you. I was a software engineer/enterprise architect for 35+ years. I use technology in a limited manner in my personal life. I really don't care for GPS. I like to know where I am going ahead of time. I don't like to be lead around. I'm not big on social media - FR is as close as I get to that. I like to be with friends and family with all devices turned off. Have real conversations that are not asynchronous messages and without interrupts being triggered every 10 seconds.
+1
Our corporation foolishly standardized on Lotus, but I insisted that all the Technicians in our departments learn & use Multiplan. That helped them later, when Excel became dominant.
I’m in my seventies and know more about computers & OS than my kids and grandkids. Of course was in IT all thru 80’s, 90’s and early 2k, taught programming all thru 80’s. Hate Windows with a passion and use Linux, use SSD’s instead of hard drives. My kids still ask me for help LOL.
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