techrecovery | Dec. 6th, 2007

I don't understand what drives people who have no use for a computer on top of no idea how to use a computer to go out and BUY a computer.

I don't know the first thing about power tools, nor do I have a reason to own any. That's why I don't go out and buy any. I get by just fine with the screwdriver and hammer I have stashed in my kitchen junk drawer.

These people have gotten by just fine with their older machines on a locally provided dial-up connection, sending and receiving email and that's it.

What drives them to drive to $BigBoxRetailer, pick up the most expensive and shiny wireless laptop with a swiveling screen and a fingerprint reader, sign up for an internet connection they don't need and completely ruin what they had going?

Granted, if their intention is to actually learn about how to use the shiny box they just bought, I can appreciate that. However, that doesn't ever seem to be the case.

I don't walk into $HardwareStore with my brand new power drill and demand someone tell me how to use it. That part is up to me. That's the case with anything in the world... except computers.

Why are computers the only exception?

Edit: Also, a somewhat unrelated rant.

I love at the end of a call when I'm going over why the customers issue is something on their end and has nothing to do with $ISP how they kind of trail off like all hope is lost. I can hear their eyes widening in fear because they have no clue where to go next. Then, in a last attempt to get me to do something to help them, they scramble for any solution they think I missed or haven't though of, trying to poke holes in my logic, which of course they can't do because they don't understand the situation to begin with.

If I take my car to a mechanic because it's not working, and he tells me I need a new $CarPart, I don't scramble for an answer in a subject I know nothing about with the few terms I learned reading the car magazines in the lobby... 'Did you check the, uh, carburetor? What about the break pads? How is my tire pressure?'... I thank them for their time and expertise and trust they're not screwing me over while they tell me what steps need to happen next.

If you go to a doctor because your arm hurts and he tells you it's because it's broken, you don't try and poke holes in his logic by asking 'Are you sure it's not a brain tumor? I think my symptoms point more towards a heart murmur? The nurse said it looked like a sprain.'... They went to school for a really long time and got a degree. That, and a bone is sticking out of our arm.

Why are computers the only exception?

Also, I'm tired of 'but it worked yesterday'. Of course it worked yesterday. If something is going to stop working, it has to stop at some point. My car worked yesterday until $CarPart broke. Your arm worked yesterday until your broke it. Your computer worked yesterday until McAfee automatically updated and screwed with the firewall settings.

Okay, I'm done ranting. I apologize for my overuse of metaphor. i liek them