How do people not know these simple things?

[notfred]

I was in a class tonight after work. CSC130 - Data Structures and Algorithm Analysis. The prereq's for this class include several semesters of programming, and some basic calculus.

I was taking notes on my iBook, in OS X. One guy asked me what GUI it was.... he thought I was running linux with some cool new window manager. I guess he didn't notice the black print saying "iBook" or the big glowing apple on the back...

That wasn't that bad, though, what was bad was this:
The girl next to me (yes, my comp. sci. classes have girls - 25 to 33% or so) asks how long I can run it for. I say, "the battery will last about four hours". She says, "It has a battery in it?" She had no idea that the batteries in laptops could be removed and replaced. I took a few minutes to explain this to her, and she said, "I thought they were like cell phones, you just plug them in and they charge up".

I said, "cell phones have removable batteries, too" and she was like "What?" I then showed her how to remove the battery from her cell phone.

BTW, the reason she asked about my battery life in the first place was cause her HP laptop only lasted about 1 hour on a charge, it's not like she's never owned a laptop before.


edit: damn that had a lot of typos.

 

[PsychoAndy]

Some people have more money than brains.

Can you argue with them?

-PAB

 

[Rallispec]

haha.. yeah, people really amaze me sometimes.


and 4 hours!! damn! apple must be doing something right. i only get about 2 hours on my toshiba

 

[Heisenberg]

Originally posted by: Rallispec
haha.. yeah, people really amaze me sometimes.


and 4 hours!! damn! apple must be doing something right. i only get about 2 hours on my toshiba

I get 3:30-3:45 on my Dell. Do you have a high-capacity battery?

 

[SWirth86]

How do people not know these simple things?
Because they're stupid

Man, that girl is really out of it....you should have told her that power is stored in the RAM, so the more RAM you have, the longer your laptop will run...

 

[RbSX]

Also some processors don't guzzle, my 1.13ghz IBM lasts for about 2 hours only.

 

[Rallispec]

Originally posted by: Heisenberg

Originally posted by: Rallispec
haha.. yeah, people really amaze me sometimes.


and 4 hours!! damn! apple must be doing something right. i only get about 2 hours on my toshiba

I get 3:30-3:45 on my Dell. Do you have a high-capacity battery?

i think so, its a lithium ion battery.

 

[Mucman]

Yeah, the school system should weed them out... I am now taking 300 level courses and most the the people seem to have a clue now... 101 was a riot though... I was helping people compile and run Hello World programs and they were mesmerized

 

[Kadarin]

The amazing thing here is that these people are all in a CompSci class, so you'd think they'd have some familiarity with this. Then again, I work with some incredibly smart people who have no problem troubleshooting complex multi-vendor ospf and bgp issues, but who can't figure out how to do simple things with their PCs..

 

[SOSTrooper]

This is what happened when I called Microsoft to register Windows XP

me: "I'm on the desktop in XP now"
tech guy (who sounds like he's in the 30s or 40s): "Oh ok you're on a desktop, great"
me: "So where do I go to find this number that you're looking for?"
tech guy: "Did you turn on the computer?"
me: "Ummm... I'm on the desktop"
tech guy: "No no, it doesnt matter if you're on a desktop or laptop, but I need to you turn on the computer"
me (OMFGingly): "Listen, I mean on the desktop, IN WINDOWS XP"
tech guy: "OHHHHH the desktop"

.......
no joke

 

[sandorski]

In these peoples defence: Software programming doesn't require or necessarily expose people to various forms of hardware or OSes. A good programmer could easily be complete idiots of this aspect of computers and not be affected at all.

Also, there are Notebooks with no internal battery. They require external battery packs or an electrical outlet to plug into.

 

[Aves]

Originally posted by: Astaroth33
The amazing thing here is that these people are all in a CompSci class, so you'd think they'd have some familiarity with this. Then again, I work with some incredibly smart people who have no problem troubleshooting complex multi-vendor ospf and bgp issues, but who can't figure out how to do simple things with their PCs..

Me too. It seems odd but I guess it really isn't.

 

[Scouzer]

Originally posted by: SOSTrooper
This is what happened when I called Microsoft to register Windows XP

me: "I'm on the desktop in XP now"
tech guy (who sounds like he's in the 30s or 40s): "Oh ok you're on a desktop, great"
me: "So where do I go to find this number that you're looking for?"
tech guy: "Did you turn on the computer?"
me: "Ummm... I'm on the desktop"
tech guy: "No no, it doesnt matter if you're on a desktop or laptop, but I need to you turn on the computer"
me (OMFGingly): "Listen, I mean on the desktop, IN WINDOWS XP"
tech guy: "OHHHHH the desktop"

.......
no joke

I can't blame him. I'd imagine he gets a lot of idiots every day and it becomes habit to treat everyone like they are mentally handicapped (Not that you are).

 

[eakers]

Originally posted by: notfred
I was in a class tonight affter wook. CSC130 - Data Structures and Algorithm Analysis. The prereqs for this class include several semesters of programmnig, and some basic calculus.

I was taking notes on my iBook, in OS X. One guy asked me what GUI it was.... he thoguht I was running linux with some cool new window manager. I guess he didn't nitice the black print saying "iBook" or the big glowing apple on the back...

That wasn't that bad, though, what was bad was this:
The girl next to me (yes, my comp sci classes have girls - 25 -22% or so) asks how long I can run it for. I say "the battery will last about four hours" she says "It has a battery in it?" She hod no idea that the betteries in laptops could be removed and replaced. I took a few minutes to explain this to her, and she said "I thought they were like cell phones, you jsut plug them in and they charge up".

I said "cell phones have removeable batteries, too" and she's like "What?" I then showed her how to remove the battery from her cell phone.

BTW, the reason she asked about my battery life in the first place was cause her HP laptop only lasted about 1 hour on a charge, it's not like she's never owned a laptop before.

this is the greatest story ive ever heard hehe.

 

[notfred]

Originally posted by: sandorski
In these peoples defence: Software programming doesn't require or necessarily expose people to various forms of hardware or OSes. A good programmer could easily be complete idiots of this aspect of computers and not be affected at all.

Also, there are Notebooks with no internal battery. They require external battery packs or an electrical outlet to plug into.

No, programming doesn't require a knowledge of a lot of different hardware, but after at least a year's worth of classes in a building full of computer geeks carrying around laptops, she still doesn't realize that HER OWN COMPUTER has a battery you can change?


I'd like to see these notebooks w/ no battery you're reffering to. And not some 286 from 1985 or something. Something that would still be in use.

 

[hans007]

i really think that its a shame that most CS majors dont know jack about their computers.

i mean i've met people who cant install drivers, (hell i've met guys who are like 35 and been in industry for 10 years who cant).


its sad really, i think that it should be required that you know your way around, you are just embarassing other people in your field, and making yourself look like a moron.

 

[ndee]

I thought you could install Linux on the iBook, so it's not such a deviously idea.

 

[sandorski]

Originally posted by: notfred

Originally posted by: sandorski
In these peoples defence: Software programming doesn't require or necessarily expose people to various forms of hardware or OSes. A good programmer could easily be complete idiots of this aspect of computers and not be affected at all.

Also, there are Notebooks with no internal battery. They require external battery packs or an electrical outlet to plug into.

No, programming doesn't require a knowledge of a lot of different hardware, but after at least a year's worth of classes in a building full of computer geeks carrying around laptops, she still doesn't realize that HER OWN COMPUTER has a battery you can change?


I'd like to see these notebooks w/ no battery you're reffering to. And not some 286 from 1985 or something. Something that would still be in use.

Well, I'm still not surprised, it's not like the batteries need replaced after losing their charge. I'm on second Braun electric tooth brush which has a rechargeable battery. With the first one I learned one thing, there's no way in hell to replace it(kinda accidently, I wasn't intending to replace it, it just came open resulting in a tangle of copper wire ).

I'll have to get the brand name from my bro and no, they weren't some Compaq 286. They were Celeron 1ghz with DVD. Some obscure brand, but quite nice.

 

[Shalmanese]

Linux CAN run on a mac, its a CS class so I assume your programming on x86 so there is no NEED for the people in your class to come into contact with Macs. The guy has probably lived in the x86 world all his life and when he sees something that isn't windows, he just assumes its *nix.

you CAN buy laptops without batteries, they are called desknotes and basically run a hybrid of desktop & laptop hardware in a laptop chassis.

I find it slightly ironic that people on AT forums dont know about the existance of such things when Anand has reviewed several of them.

It almost makes you smile

 

[Descartes]

notfred is talking about the same thing I talked about a long time ago (and I was flamed for it ).

One of my arguments in my post was that those who claim to have worked with Perl for a long time will almost undoubtedly know who Larry Wall is, and most will also probably know about the "camel book".

I've often wondered myself how certain people can get to the positions they're in *without* picking up a lot of this knowledge.

 

[Siddhartha]

I try to never assume that other people have the same experiences, knowledge base, or values I do because they probably don't.

 

[iamme]

"Cell phones have batteries???"

ROFL.....thanks for the morning laugh

 

[FSUpaintball]

I met a guy who worked for Dial-A-Tech. He had a very interesting job.

Once, someone called him because they were having "problems" with WinFax. The instructions said, "Whatever is on your screen will be faxed," so he had been HOLDING THE PIECE OF PAPER AGAINST THE MONITOR for the last 5 minutes.


There was also a drunk guy that would call in every night and just ramble for half an hour straight. Apparently, the Dial-A-Tech membership cards were cheaper than phone chat lines, so he just bought those instead.

 

[Shelly21]

Next time, tell her it is just like the vibrators that she uses... they just take a different type of battery....

 

[Hammer]

maybe hers requires ac power?

Originally posted by: Shelly21
Next time, tell her it is just like the vibrators that she uses... they just take a different type of battery....