Computers and Their Users

A friend of mine showed me a hillarious site on computers. Here is an exerpt for you. I will try to link the site, but I may forget.


Tech Support: "Hello, tech support, can I help you?"
Customer: (slowly) "Oohh." (pause) "I think I did a bad thing."
Tech Support: "Ok, so tell me what's up."
Customer: "Well, my computer was running great. Everything was working fine, I had no problems whatsoever."
Tech Support: "Ok..."
Customer: "So I decided to open it up and have a look inside. I saw all these wires dangling all over the place. There were grey flat ones, and small red, black, and yellow ones, and it seemed like they weren't connected to anything. So I decided to plug them all in."
Tech Support: "Um, you mean you plugged them all in? What did you plug them into?"
Customer: "Well, whatever I could get them to connect to. I saw pins sticking off of some of the boards that didn't have anything on them, so I plugged all the loose wires in to make it run better."
Tech Support: "And then you..."
Customer: "And so I plugged them all in, and I hit the power button, and there was this loud bang and a flash and a puff of smoke. Now it doesn't work at all."
Tech Support: (suppressing all emotion and turning deep crimson) "Can you hold for a minute, please?"
Kaboom! "Explosive" doesn't adequately describe the laughter. I related the story to some co-workers between gasps for breath. Several of the techs and I had quite the laugh fest while he was on hold. After about five minutes of eye-popping, sweat-beading laughter, I wiped away the tears, took a sip of water, and came back on the line. I knew it'd be futile to even attempt to troubleshoot it.
Tech Support: "Ok, well why don't we just have you wrap it up in the original packing material and send it back to us, we'll take care of the whole thing."
And so another computer newbie learned that the extra power supply cables and unused IDE ribbon cables don't have to be plugged in for the computer to work just fine.

here is another one...


Customer: "Hi, I think I've got a problem with my monitor."
Tech Support: "Ah. Do you still have an image?"
Customer: "Yes, best image ever. Thing is, when I look at it from the side, I see red hot components."
Tech Support: "Uh, when you look at it from the SIDE? How can you see any components?"
Customer: "Well, through that big smoking hole."

Ben Hur

Yesterday I went through Ben Hur. I don't recall having ever seen a slower, more boring movie. The chariot race was ok, but aside from that, there was a complete lack of excitement. Judah's relationship with Esther made no sense to me whatsoever at all, and each scene took forever to start: You would see two people facing each other at opposite ends of a hall for say, and they would stand there and look at each other for a minute or two, literally! Before they even started either talking or walking towards each other, or if you were lucky, both at once. If I had a good DVD editing program I could cut 25% of the time out and still have a comprehensive movie, reducing it from the three some hour mammoth that it is to something more manageable. Also, the plot was dull and straight forward. A good plot should not be completely comprehended the first time. There should be some reason to go back and watch it again, and you should enjoy it more the second time through. Most of my favorite books are like that as well. (Dune is a notable example.) At the end of the show I was left wondering what the behemoth was doing parading around with eleven academy awards. My own life is more exciting, which makes me wonder: if that is the case, why am I posting about it?

Graduation

Sorry for the depressing last post. At any rate, I am one of the honor guards for the graduation ceremony next Wednesday (I doubt they chose me for the hair...). Jeremy is graduating, and all the seniors were wandering around in their capes and hat things, and photos were taken. On seeing themselves, Jeremy exclaimed, "foggies! We've become old foggies!" Whether he was pleased or not, I have yet to discern. My cousin's opinion on all the get-up is that it can make anyone look ugly, and I agree. Maybe I am just jealous, but somehow I doubt it: the cape things look hot and restraining, and the hats are designed to blow off in a breeze... Plus, they were not designed to go over an afro, or even just a halfro...

The End of My Life

My life is largely coming to the end of my control. My friends are going to colleges in universities two continents away from me, all my classes next year with one exception (muzik) don't look like any fun, and my summer has been taken away from me (we are trekking all over the states, but we will only spend a week or so in Lafayette, and we will have to go camping... I will probably have to learn to drive sometime, and I have had less time to play computers recently, and it doesn't look like I will be able to play them much in the future either. After I graduate, I will probably wind up in some university some where and discover that it is not all its cracked up to be, and find myself with ten minutes of free time a day, studying the heck out of who knows what, only to get a job and discover that its not all its cracked up to be either... A friend of mine once said this: life sucks, then you die, and I am starting to realize how true that is.