Several days ago, Ryan and I were at a mall and we happened to overhear a conversation that went something like this:
Girl 1: “Hey, have you seen the new gPhone? It’s Apple’s new iPhone!”
Girl 2: “Cool!”
How the conversation finished, we’re not sure because we continued to walk by. We looked at each other and kinda laughed at the thought that someone believed that the gPhone was an iPhone.
So often I hear people say off-the-wall things like that, or they get their tech facts all goofed up. I’m sure you’ve found yourself in situations like that as well. If you’re like me, part of you wants to stop and correct the people so that they don’t continue to make fools out of themselves. There’s always another part of me though, that says to keep moving and mind my own business, which is what I usually do unless I’m directly involved in the conversation.
Another example was a conversation at work that went something like this:
Co-worker 1: “Vista is actually pretty nice, now that I am getting used to it.”
Co-worker 2: “It is, I’m just having a hard time getting used to not having menus.”
Co-worker 1: “Menus?”
Co-worker 2: “You know, they got rid of the menus in Word!”
It took a second for me to realize that Co-worker 2 thought that Office 2007 was called Vista.
Offhand I am having a hard time thinking of other examples, but there are many! Have you ever been part of a conversation that left you trying to explain the facts to people who thought they knew what they were talking about? Or maybe you’ve had experiences like we did at the mall where you overhear someone saying something that you just knew was not right?
When people get their tech facts mixed up it’s usually a reminder that I spend too much time following technology related news, but I wouldn’t have it any other way!
In CS240, I was talking about Linux, and some kid in the front row turned around and said “Linux? Is that the new version of Microsoft?” I almost had to leave the room.
Many older people I advise keep thinking that Office = Windows. When they get Windows on their PC, it means Office. They have no idea what an operating system is.
Or (ultra short version):
Person: I want to videophone my friend in [other country]! What do I need?
Me: I’d recommend getting a webcam and use Skype.
– several days later –
Person: I don’t think I need to use Skype or buy a webcam. This site was recommend to me by a friend: look, you can speak to each other and see each other in full screen! [flash demo on site] All for free!
…
Amazing how minds work sometimes..!
The technology world moves so fast it’s almost impossible to keep track of what is going on. I read a lot about it, on and off the Internet, but the waves of new information just keeps flooding in.
I can understand and sympathize with newbies misunderstanding geeky terms. For example, what I first started blogging, I didn’t understand what LOL meant, yet everybody was using it. It make me feel stupid.
I work in the IT department of a college, and I’d say that literally about 75% of the staff don’t know what OS they run at home, and don’t know that Office and Windows aren’t the same thing. Don’t even get me started on the PC/mac thing; that just melts people’s brains…
I’ve been working with some Engineers lately, programming a website for them. At one point I’d left out a validation before a query and so using a form resulted in an SQL error. The client tried it on every PC in their house before going to the library and trying it on a few there. He angrily told me he didn’t mind if things wouldn’t work on his PC, but the fact that only one PC in the library made it work showed it was a low quality program. Of course by the time he’d tried a few I’d noticed the error myself and fixed it – I’m unsure how anyone thinks that getting the same SQL Error message on a few PCs indicates its a problem with the computer.
If you need more of these [rinkworks.com]
Yes i once had this so called java guru advising people that they start using linux to be counted as geeks as linux had no “GUI”. He was adamant. Linux for geeks-
– my granny would prefer ubuntu over vista anyday. haha
I work in the IT dept at work.
Has anyone had to explain to someone where to find the “spacebar” key on their keyboard over the phone, and failed!?
I often have people ask me if I “have internet on my laptop.” Well, yes, I have internet access if there’s a wireless router providing it, but no, I don’t just have internet access anywhere. However, usually I don’t want to explain all that so one time I just said, “Yes.” The lady then asked me if her son could borrow my laptop to get online… hmmmm, well, sure… The son and a buddy of his soon figured out that my laptop didn’t “have internet,” so they decided to try dial up. He finally gave up and returned it after downloading iTunes was going to take several hours.
I once had a monitor – a screaming 15″ model – on which the cable was going bad. If you twisted it just right, it worked, but otherwise the screen looked all weird. Well, one time I was helping the IT guy at my school and he brought in a monitor that was looking all weird and he said it needed to be degaussed. He said it as if degaussing a monitor was right up there with open heart surgery. I thought well ok, and degaussed it. Then I told him about my monitor and gave the cable a nudge. He stood there for several minutes playing with the cable, trying to see if his twisting it was really was what causing the screen to go back and forth.
I don’t know if Gmail does this any more, but it used to, when you have an address in the email, it would display a link with the address and underneath it said, “Map it.” I got an email from a church secretary (I had set up the Gmail accounts which is why she was emailing me) asking me if I knew how to print just one email, and if I knew how to keep people from mapping our (email) address. I don’t think I still have the email, so I’m not sure if she mean email address or street address. I had no idea what she meant by the mapping, so I asked her to clarify and she sent me an image in a Word document showing me. I was so dumbfounded I never replied. I hope she figured it out. Oh, and the “print all” doesn’t print all your emails, so I can almost understand the confusion there.
Boy, I could go on…
The “Office Vista” thing is still really common here a year after it came out and I spent an age correcting everyone. I think it’s down to the fact that so many Vista laptops/PCs came with it – or a demo version – pre-installed.
I’d say the most common issue was people using “hard drive” instead of “base unit”. This works both ways, as the number of times I’d have to ask for the hard drive to be returned and then wonder why I had the whole case arrive on my desk.
“my granny would prefer ubuntu over vista anyday”
My grandma will soon be using ubuntu. I just need to get this hard drive cleared off.. The only two people in my family that ever really use Windows at this point are my dad and my older sister.
Week ago I had a small debate with one of the manager regarding one of his staff’s PC. After a little while, I realize when he talking about computer he refers to the monitor only, not the whole unit. Duh!
I have clients mix up terminology constantly. Sometimes it takes a while for me to interpret what they mean as they mix up terms about hardware, software and confuse items from different programs, operating systems, etc.
I constantly hear shop assistants telling customers wrong information, or they try to sell someone a product capable of 10x more than the customer needs. The customer laps it up as fact. Sometimes I have had to speak out, especially when you can half their cost.
One thing that makes all this worse is that Microsoft are idiots when it comes to naming things: They gave their file managager and their web browser essentially the same name (explorer). That means telling someone to paste a path to a file into the location bar in explorer results in them trying to find that file out on the internets, and vice versa.
All of these comments are great and are exactly what I was expecting to hear! Funny, aren’t they?
I sympathize with newbies too, but still find in funny when I hear them say something completely off the wall.
Wow! That’s all I have to say about that one…
I can relate to this one all too well but it’s been more of an issue with some of my students. They think when I tell them to turn the monitor on that they need to push the button on the CPU. They are just kids though, so I’ll give them a break.
Great point! Sometimes when Ryan and I are at the store we like to listen in on some of the conversations going on between sales reps and customers. Some of the funniest experiences I can recall have been at the Apple store when the Apple folks weren’t getting their Vista facts straight.
I assume that was a typo, or do they really think they have to open up the computer casing and then have to find a button on the CPU? (which won’t be there)
What I also hear very often is that people mix up “Internet Explorer” and “the internet”. E.g., they would say “The internet crashed! What do I do?”