Just because I work with computers...

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: jdini76

Originally posted by: fisheerman

Originally posted by: jdini76
ONE example:
My girlfriend wants to open an ING account. Because I opened one sand said it was good. because it is soley on the internet, She asked me to help her. I gratefully agreed. But our schedules have been crazy lately and when ever we are together we are too involved with each other that we forget to open the account. So last night I was eating dinner at her parent?s house, and the ING subject comes up. Her mom says and I thought the ING account was on your to do list (meaning me). I held back my normal computer guy outburst and kindly said "Well, I would greatly help out with it, but its not rocket science. If she has some time on her own its easy enough to do by herself." Of course my girlfriend took it the wrong way saying "you said you would help me!" I didn't realize "help" really meant "do it for you."

Then her mom chimes in saying "well you know the inner workings of the website." I'm thinking to myself. I know the website because I did it by myself. I figured it out on my own. Its a website, its designed for the average web user. I don't have special knowledge of the website encoded in my DNA! If you can use any normal online banking account (which they do) you can use this one!

So I said when we get together again we will set it up together. But I know we will forget. and then when she is by herself wondering what to do, the ING account will be the last thing on her mind because I am supposed to help her.

She isn't computer illiterate she knows her way around the internet no problem! She just feels that since this thing is on the computer I will know how to do it better!

I guess all I am trying to say is that if people would just try it first, us computer guys' lives would be so much easier! How do you think we learned what we know!?

Agree or disagree?


Edited for Clarity.

This is exactly the same situation i am in with my wifes whole family. Every time we go over to the inlaws house it goes something like this.

(father)
Hey can you show me how to get onto my email?
(me)Did you try to get on and have a problem?
(father)No but i figured since you new computers i would what for you to show me how?

Literally i have shown him this 5 times in thelast month. always forgetting passwords. i even went so far as to write down the instructions and he lost them.

the other night my wife informs me that her dad feels like he can't ask my help on anything. I asked oh yeah what in specific? she said he can't get onto his email. i couldn't believe it.

i will not even go into the brother............

This is one programmer that hates computers..............


-fish

I have more patience with older people learning computers. But I really feel your pain. My 86 year old Grandmother has her own Laptop. and can e-mail all her friend and play bridge online. She has what she does down to a routine on click motions and link locations. But if one thing is out of sorts. i.e the website updated its look and the link isn't there anymore. She cannot for the life of her figure out whats wrong or what to do. So I have to re-teach her. and I am happy to! its just draining and frusdtrating.

I just tell people to buy Macs now

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: AMDZen

Originally posted by: jdini76

Originally posted by: moshquerade

Originally posted by: jdini76
My girlfriend wants to open an ING account. Because I opened one sand said it was good. because it is soley on the internet, She asked me to help her. I gratefully agreed. But our schedules have been crazy lately and when ever we are together we are too involved with each other that we forget to open the account. So last night I was eating dinner at her parent?s house, and the ING subject comes up. Her mom says and I thought the ING account was on your to do list (meaning me). I held back my normal computer guy outburst and kindly said "Well, I would greatly help out with it, but its not rocket science. If she has some time on her own its easy enough to do by herself." Of course my girlfriend took it the wrong way saying "you said you would help me!" I didn't realize "help" really meant "do it for you."

Then her mom chimes in saying "well you know the inner workings of the website." I'm thinking to myself. I know the website because I did it by myself. I figured it out on my own. Its a website, its designed for the average web user. I don't have special knowledge of the website encoded in my DNA! If you can use any normal online banking account (which they do) you can use this one!

So I said when we get together again we will set it up together. But I know we will forget. and then when she is by herself wondering what to do, the ING account will be the last thing on her mind because I am supposed to help her.

She isn't computer illiterate she knows her way around the internet no problem! She just feels that since this thing is on the computer I will know how to do it better!

I guess all I am trying to say is that is people would just try to do computer related things first, us computer guys' life would be so much easier! How do you think we learned what we know!?

Agree or disagree?

you're not a very nice person. someone looks to you for expertise - feel honored.

Not a nice person!? I am insulted. I go out of my way and help out anybody that asks. I just feel that sometimes people take us computer people for granted. They come running to us on the drop of a hat when anything computer related comes up!

Trust me i have all the intention of helping my GF and want to help!

I would feel more honored if people would ask me for the best way to do something in order to do it themselves. Not to do something for them. That is a better use of my expertise. I feel like I am teaching them something. Instead I feel like the government giving out welfare!

QFT. I understood how you meant it the first time, and it wasn't in any way mean. Its the fact that people seem to become helpless in this day and age and I, as well as quite a few others here know exactly where your coming from. People don't even attempt o try it themselves, they learn to depend on you so much they forget how to do things for themselves. I can assure you that most of my friends and family now come running to me instead of even troubleshooting simple problems and it gets old.

Mosh, well she is simply better, and more moral then we mere mortals can ever hope to become. She would have opened that ING account, and then proceeded to open one for every less fortunate human on the planet.

Give a man a fish, feed him for a day, teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime?

 

[theprodigalrebel]

Just this week, I was asked to:
1) Help someone file their H1 Visa application online (I barely know the guy. He made a frantic call, didn't explain anything and said it was an emergency. I scrambled over and got sucked into that painful mess). 25-year-old (ahem) SAP developer needs help filing a damn visa application from a College Senior?
2) Spend the whole night with this dude, looking for Universities & Guidelines for Education Abroad on the Internet. Right, so you want to get a Master's Degree in Software Engineering but can't bloody use Google?

What do they think I am, an Intraweb God? I use the same damn search engines as everyone else.

 

[moshquerade]

Originally posted by: AMDZen

Originally posted by: jdini76

Originally posted by: moshquerade

Originally posted by: jdini76
My girlfriend wants to open an ING account. Because I opened one sand said it was good. because it is soley on the internet, She asked me to help her. I gratefully agreed. But our schedules have been crazy lately and when ever we are together we are too involved with each other that we forget to open the account. So last night I was eating dinner at her parent?s house, and the ING subject comes up. Her mom says and I thought the ING account was on your to do list (meaning me). I held back my normal computer guy outburst and kindly said "Well, I would greatly help out with it, but its not rocket science. If she has some time on her own its easy enough to do by herself." Of course my girlfriend took it the wrong way saying "you said you would help me!" I didn't realize "help" really meant "do it for you."

Then her mom chimes in saying "well you know the inner workings of the website." I'm thinking to myself. I know the website because I did it by myself. I figured it out on my own. Its a website, its designed for the average web user. I don't have special knowledge of the website encoded in my DNA! If you can use any normal online banking account (which they do) you can use this one!

So I said when we get together again we will set it up together. But I know we will forget. and then when she is by herself wondering what to do, the ING account will be the last thing on her mind because I am supposed to help her.

She isn't computer illiterate she knows her way around the internet no problem! She just feels that since this thing is on the computer I will know how to do it better!

I guess all I am trying to say is that is people would just try to do computer related things first, us computer guys' life would be so much easier! How do you think we learned what we know!?

Agree or disagree?

you're not a very nice person. someone looks to you for expertise - feel honored.

Not a nice person!? I am insulted. I go out of my way and help out anybody that asks. I just feel that sometimes people take us computer people for granted. They come running to us on the drop of a hat when anything computer related comes up!

Trust me i have all the intention of helping my GF and want to help!

I would feel more honored if people would ask me for the best way to do something in order to do it themselves. Not to do something for them. That is a better use of my expertise. I feel like I am teaching them something. Instead I feel like the government giving out welfare!

QFT. I understood how you meant it the first time, and it wasn't in any way mean. Its the fact that people seem to become helpless in this day and age and I, as well as quite a few others here know exactly where your coming from. People don't even attempt o try it themselves, they learn to depend on you so much they forget how to do things for themselves. I can assure you that most of my friends and family now come running to me instead of even troubleshooting simple problems and it gets old.

Mosh, well she is simply better, and more moral then we mere mortals can ever hope to become. She would have opened that ING account, and then proceeded to open one for every less fortunate human on the planet.

is every less fortunate human on the planet asking for his help?

get real.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: theprodigalrebel
Just this week, I was asked to:
1) Help someone file their H1 Visa application online (I barely know the guy. He made a frantic call, didn't explain anything and said it was an emergency. I scrambled over and got sucked into that painful mess). 25-year-old (ahem) SAP developer needs help filing a damn visa application from a College Senior?
2) Spend the whole night with this dude, looking for Universities & Guidelines for Education Abroad on the Internet. Right, so you want to get a Master's Degree in Software Engineering but can't bloody use Google?

What do they think I am, an Intraweb God? I use the same damn search engines as everyone else.

He sounds a little *too* specialized. Then again, 99.9% of the hardcore programmers I know understand next to nothing about non-programming related stuff. There's something to be said about being both specialized and well-rounded

 

[jdini76]

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: jdini76

Originally posted by: fisheerman

Originally posted by: jdini76
ONE example:
My girlfriend wants to open an ING account. Because I opened one sand said it was good. because it is soley on the internet, She asked me to help her. I gratefully agreed. But our schedules have been crazy lately and when ever we are together we are too involved with each other that we forget to open the account. So last night I was eating dinner at her parent?s house, and the ING subject comes up. Her mom says and I thought the ING account was on your to do list (meaning me). I held back my normal computer guy outburst and kindly said "Well, I would greatly help out with it, but its not rocket science. If she has some time on her own its easy enough to do by herself." Of course my girlfriend took it the wrong way saying "you said you would help me!" I didn't realize "help" really meant "do it for you."

Then her mom chimes in saying "well you know the inner workings of the website." I'm thinking to myself. I know the website because I did it by myself. I figured it out on my own. Its a website, its designed for the average web user. I don't have special knowledge of the website encoded in my DNA! If you can use any normal online banking account (which they do) you can use this one!

So I said when we get together again we will set it up together. But I know we will forget. and then when she is by herself wondering what to do, the ING account will be the last thing on her mind because I am supposed to help her.

She isn't computer illiterate she knows her way around the internet no problem! She just feels that since this thing is on the computer I will know how to do it better!

I guess all I am trying to say is that if people would just try it first, us computer guys' lives would be so much easier! How do you think we learned what we know!?

Agree or disagree?


Edited for Clarity.

This is exactly the same situation i am in with my wifes whole family. Every time we go over to the inlaws house it goes something like this.

(father)
Hey can you show me how to get onto my email?
(me)Did you try to get on and have a problem?
(father)No but i figured since you new computers i would what for you to show me how?

Literally i have shown him this 5 times in thelast month. always forgetting passwords. i even went so far as to write down the instructions and he lost them.

the other night my wife informs me that her dad feels like he can't ask my help on anything. I asked oh yeah what in specific? she said he can't get onto his email. i couldn't believe it.

i will not even go into the brother............

This is one programmer that hates computers..............


-fish

I have more patience with older people learning computers. But I really feel your pain. My 86 year old Grandmother has her own Laptop. and can e-mail all her friend and play bridge online. She has what she does down to a routine on click motions and link locations. But if one thing is out of sorts. i.e the website updated its look and the link isn't there anymore. She cannot for the life of her figure out whats wrong or what to do. So I have to re-teach her. and I am happy to! its just draining and frusdtrating.

I just tell people to buy Macs now

haha. Do you think the average person will know that macs and PCs are totally different? They will still ask for help. and you know what? We will still try to help them, and learn as a result!

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: jdini76

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: jdini76

Originally posted by: fisheerman

Originally posted by: jdini76
ONE example:
My girlfriend wants to open an ING account. Because I opened one sand said it was good. because it is soley on the internet, She asked me to help her. I gratefully agreed. But our schedules have been crazy lately and when ever we are together we are too involved with each other that we forget to open the account. So last night I was eating dinner at her parent?s house, and the ING subject comes up. Her mom says and I thought the ING account was on your to do list (meaning me). I held back my normal computer guy outburst and kindly said "Well, I would greatly help out with it, but its not rocket science. If she has some time on her own its easy enough to do by herself." Of course my girlfriend took it the wrong way saying "you said you would help me!" I didn't realize "help" really meant "do it for you."

Then her mom chimes in saying "well you know the inner workings of the website." I'm thinking to myself. I know the website because I did it by myself. I figured it out on my own. Its a website, its designed for the average web user. I don't have special knowledge of the website encoded in my DNA! If you can use any normal online banking account (which they do) you can use this one!

So I said when we get together again we will set it up together. But I know we will forget. and then when she is by herself wondering what to do, the ING account will be the last thing on her mind because I am supposed to help her.

She isn't computer illiterate she knows her way around the internet no problem! She just feels that since this thing is on the computer I will know how to do it better!

I guess all I am trying to say is that if people would just try it first, us computer guys' lives would be so much easier! How do you think we learned what we know!?

Agree or disagree?


Edited for Clarity.

This is exactly the same situation i am in with my wifes whole family. Every time we go over to the inlaws house it goes something like this.

(father)
Hey can you show me how to get onto my email?
(me)Did you try to get on and have a problem?
(father)No but i figured since you new computers i would what for you to show me how?

Literally i have shown him this 5 times in thelast month. always forgetting passwords. i even went so far as to write down the instructions and he lost them.

the other night my wife informs me that her dad feels like he can't ask my help on anything. I asked oh yeah what in specific? she said he can't get onto his email. i couldn't believe it.

i will not even go into the brother............

This is one programmer that hates computers..............


-fish

I have more patience with older people learning computers. But I really feel your pain. My 86 year old Grandmother has her own Laptop. and can e-mail all her friend and play bridge online. She has what she does down to a routine on click motions and link locations. But if one thing is out of sorts. i.e the website updated its look and the link isn't there anymore. She cannot for the life of her figure out whats wrong or what to do. So I have to re-teach her. and I am happy to! its just draining and frusdtrating.

I just tell people to buy Macs now

haha. Do you think the average person will know that macs and PCs are totally different? They will still ask for help. and you know what? We will still try to help them, and learn as a result!

Meh, the OS is easier to use and more stable (well, less prone to adware/virus stuff) than your average PC. Most users use the following three things:

1. Internet (Safari)
2. Email (Mail)
3. Office (Office for Mac)

Toss in a couple video players (Flip4Mac and Perian) for playing web-based videos and your average user is all set

 

[Joemonkey]

Originally posted by: jdini76
haha. Do you think the average person will know that macs and PCs are totally different? They will still ask for help. and you know what? We will still try to help them, and learn as a result!

This is what kills me. IT folks are always learning new ways to make other workers efficent, save the company money, having to figure out issues all on their own, and at least willing to TRY to figure out things for other folks.

non-IT people are usually too lazy to try to figure out anything for themselves, blame IT for EVERYTHING that could possibly go wrong in their lives, and afraid of any type of change no matter how beneficial it could be to their job and/or life.

 

[dquan97]

Plain and simple...
1. She asked you for help
2. You agreed
3. Dinner comes around and you tell her that she can do it herself
4. YOU = sleeping on the couch

 

[jdini76]

Originally posted by: dquan97
Plain and simple...
1. She asked you for help
2. You agreed
3. Dinner comes around and you tell her that she can do it herself
4. YOU = sleeping on the couch

Way to misconstrude what I said and meant by the OP.

 

[Squisher]

So, if you were a librarian you'd have to read the TV Guide for them too?

 

[randay]

Originally posted by: ScrapSilicon

Originally posted by: jdini76

Agree or disagree?

poll and pics

 

[pontifex]

my dad is a photographer. he uses digital cameras. he wants a website and wants to be able to put his pictures on it.

he doesn't understand basic windows stuff like folders, renaming files, deleting files, etc. but he wants to do all this other stuff.