One of our IT guys told me that 99% of the repairs they have to do with laptops issued to field personnel can be traced back to porn sites and/or files.
That checklist certainly identifies any PEBCAK errors. You know, Problem Exists Between Chair And Keyboard.
I have yet to work at a place that had an IT guy that was worth a nickle.
90% of the time you see them they are just hanging around BS’ing with people about anything but work but when you ask them about your issue they tell you how busy they are and will get to it when they can.
Some “in the field” get this. others may not.
I mean in general most of you are somewhat computer literate
(you are here and reading this)
But many times you enter offices/workplaces where some are not.
(and i mean just don’t get it)
example:
[SIZE=“3”]We were getting away from 3278 terminals and into PCs with a terminal program that emulated the 3278.
We had a user getting used to the 3278 emulation on her new computer, and ‘PA2’ was used quite a bit, which was mapped to the center ‘Page Down’ key.
To help her, I penciled ‘PA2’ just below the key on the keyboard. When she called one day to say that her form wouldn’t submit when she pressed PA2, I went up to try to figure out what was wrong, and had her start a new form.
When she filled the form out, she went to press ‘PA2’, and was pressing the pencil mark![/SIZE]
I’ve had people ask which one is the “any” key.
Honestly some people should not be entrusted with technology. Any technology that is more advanced than a knife (fixed blade of course), a hammer, and a spoon.
I’m very fortunate to have run the gamut in IT – from phone support tech to manager.
Certainly, users with above-average cluelessness are real. I’ve seen them. However, that is nothing compared to the software I see released with above-average crappiness. I mean, at least the user might have the excuse of not being expected to know that Ctrl-Alt-Del does something.
Some poor soul buys a PC to get on the web, only to encounter some obnoxious, focus-grabbing, CPU-soaking Javascript pop-up adware telling him or her that their PC is infected because Obama wants you to lose weight with a secret to whiter teeth that the Army doesn’t want you to know about… you get the idea. Then you click one wrong thing and you’re screwed royally with constant pop-ups no matter what. You call for help and find out the only solution is to reinstall everything.
And that’s assuming you didn’t REALLY screw up and download a trojan or virus that spams everyone in your address book or grants remote access to some scumbag who grabs all the identity info he can get. I have a hard time imagining a punishment for these S.O.B.s that would be fitting but wouldn’t violate all sorts of cruel and unusual punishment precedents and international human rights treaties.
Just to be clear – I’m against government action to make the internet “safer”. I actually trust the .gov less than the lowlifes who prey on the users – at least I can discern the intent and tactics of the lowlifes and avoid them. But I still wouldn’t mind seeing their lowlife typing fingers broken… one at a time… with a pliers.
