Experiencing Technical Difficulties

[herbie]

With humans. WTF happened over the last 50 years? When did so many intentionally stop learning anything at all, forget most of what they did learn already thinking that's 'for their own convenience' ?
I've been dealing with computers, phones. tv and Internet since Bill Gates was still thinking of starting a company. Here's a few thing that people have paid me to do for them.

- Figure out how to connect the antenna cable to their TV. Explain why that little flat panel down in the basement didn't get very many TV stations that were right out there on that mountain. It says digital right on it!
- tore a landline phone jack off the kitchen wall and literally just glued the plastic jack on the wall in another room and it doesn't work!
- two people who were told their cell phones wouldn't work unless they had Internet at home. Neither of their phones were even connected to wifi, nor did they own a tablet or computer, yet they'd been paying for Internet for ages. One $150+ a month for Starlink.
- Today I was paid to set up a f*cking Amazon Fire Stick. A 6 year old  can do that. She managed to take it out of the box all by herself, read the instructions and I should've been impressed she managed to put the battery in the remote before I got there.

Husband bought the one step up version, it has buttons on the remote that are already on her SmartTV remote. It cost $20 so it must be better.
What is and where is and which funny (HDMI) plug does it go into.
What is my wifi password, where can I find it? What's the router? Oh! your phone has a flashlght! Oh! You can take a picture with your phone and then enlarge it to read the little type on the router tag? That's my password where it says 'password'?
Go to amazon.ca/code how? Oh, you can use Chrome on a phone to do Internet? Enter what code? The one on the TV?
No don't enter your gmail password to sign up for every app! F^ck it just make a new password and only us it on every app you sign up to... (bad advice but look who I'm dealing with)
Tack on 15 minutes explaining and showing her how to switch from HDMI to TV five or six times/ Do i always have to?

I'm not trying to claim I'm some Brainac, these are all things a middle age person in 2024 should know. Things I taught my children when they were in Elementary school. Like buying a model car, looking at the plans and putting it together. Shit I learned long before High School was done, the difference between a phone cable, a power cable and an antenna cable. That a clear line of sight meant you could SEE something, not 'knew' it was behind the barn or that mountain. To look up what was A and what was B without having pictures of each and 6" text saying plug A into B and still can't figure it out.

That's just tech stuff. there's so many levels of this intentional refusal to learn. From the 3 significant others that kept the cooking oil in the pantry and cake sprinkles beside the stove to the 25 yr old that didn't know if the Macs came before the Mcs in the files so she hid all their customer papers behind the filing cabinet, to a buddy who was just in a rollover and got whiplash and is glad he doesn't wear a seat belt because no govt is gonna tell him what to do.

 

 

Edited November 20, 2024 by herbie

[herbie]

"I write all my passwords down in this book....."

And I've yet to see any of the passwords written in someone's book work.

You can spot from a customer's computer without even meeting them if they're an obstinate old fart, a dupe, or just dumb. 15-25-60%

[herbie]

Always laughed at people who used a laptop on the same desk as their router and connect via wifi.
Now I laugh at people who live in town and get Starlink internet. Seen speeds up to 200Mb here for $150+ a month. You can get Gig cable or WISP for $120 here, in bigger towns for $100 a month.
They send someone to set it up and you don't need to buy a dish, crawl onto your roof and drill holes through your outside walls either.

Spent their lives thinking cheap = better, now it's newer and 'cool' > better.

BTW all those whining about the exchange rate look at the DOT COM and don't even know about DOT CA and think those are Canadian prices listed!

Edited November 28, 2024 by herbie

[herbie]

THe Bank called and asked me to drop off a stack of business cards.

It's almost Christmas so the basket cases are clicking every phishing link and email they see.

[herbie]

Want a computer gift for $100?
The Raspberry Pi 500 is out in time for Christmas. An all in the keyboard computer w 8GB RAM comes with it's own OS on a SD card. Attach any mouse and HDMI monitor and away you go.
You can attach SSD drives thru USB, there are hundreds of OS's and retro-game ports plus IO pins for hobbyists.
If you're into computers, this is the gizmo to play with, emulate almost anything.

[herbie]

Another half dozen people this week that can't tell a f*cking web page from a virus. Or their Windows desktop.
Windows seems to have a lock on the stupid.

Met one exception almost 30 years ago. A couple came into my computer store and knowing them personally I knew they'd be an endless PITA requiring help if I sold them a PC. So I told them Macs were infinitely better machines so they'd go elsewhere.
Came in 2 weeks later railing at me as a game clearly marked for Windows 3.1 or Win 95 wouldn't work. If they're better how come it won't play PC games too?

 

[herbie]

So I got a text from someone Saturday night asking if she could come over and pick up the computers she dropped off.
The previous message on the conversation was asking the same thing in early January, 2024. Then I remembered running into her at the local re-use shed in early summer, she'd asked the same question and said she'd come get it that afternoon.
Had to tell her sorry they were sent to recycling a month or so ago after I'd had them over a year and no one came to get them. She replied with OK then.

This morning there was a nasty FB post from her brother telling evreyone what a scumbag I was for throwing away "his property" and destroying all his saved memories.
I remember that system. Had a smashed  screen with a hole in it exactly the size of a hammer head. A Macbook, originally priced over $1500. That wouldn't boot up and when dismantled has a soldered on hard drive.
Scrolled back on that conversation again and saw that I'd texted her back exactly that in Oct 2023, that the only way to get those pics back was to send it to Apple, pay many huindreds of dollars and long shipping waits. No further contact until she asked to pick up the laptop in Jan 2024 and never did.

The brother actually stated in his rant that if he took his car to a mechanic, didn't want to pay for repairs and left it sitting there for a whole year a reputable mechanic would 'give his car back'.
Some people live in their own delusions.