> > Weird idea #2: You only get one chance with a computer. Press the wrong button and something terrible will happen. Something so terrible it may, in fact, result in the HEAT DEATH OF THE UNIVERSE.
>
> ***I think --let's talk about an office environment here--that sometimes these kind of ideas are reinforced (intentionally or unintentionally) by the I/S folks who service/maintain the systems/hardware etc. I think we have all run into those techs who try to impress us that these are Very Complicated Machines and you must have Extensive Training to Understand. Ask a question, and you are given the verbal equivalent of a pat on the head and shooed away. We have one guy at work who literally just grunts in response to extremely reasonable questions*. (I think his philosophy is that since he doesn't have time to explain EVERYTHING to you, he won't explain ANYTHING). What older person wants to be patronized by some young techie?--and I think some avoid the whole thing by leaving computers Strictly Alone as much as possible.

Our "computer techs" are just like that. Their only problem is that I see through them. I know enough about computers to understand how little these well-paid county employees actually know about the machines they're working with.

Example: (Maybe Sam should use it for Computer Stupidities.) One day, web pages stopped loading for, so I figured the network must have crashed. I checked with my co-worker, and her connection was fine. I called tech support and the nice-sounding guy on the other end asked if he could dial in to my computer. I said that was fine, so he looked around on my computer. And then he asked The Question: "Have you run Defrag lately?" I knew it was all over. If web pages aren't loading, defragmenting my hard drive will not fix the problem. Defrag does, however, take time, so I knew that this was his way of trying to make me happy because he didn't know what to do. I tried to say something, but he insisted that I run Defrag and call him back if it still wasn't working. Ten minutes later, we got a department-wide email that part of the network had just crashed and that we would be unable to access the Internet.

> *Like asking "what are you doing to my computer?" when you come back to your desk from that 30 second jaunt to the copy machine and find him unexpectedly sitting there installing something you didn't want, need, or ask for, which will take who knows how long, so that while you were planning to print something out to give to the messenger who is due in minutes, what you actually end up doing is running around the office trying to borrow someone else's computer for that purpose.

My former supervisor used to do things like that. Until I came along, the people in our office thought he was the Computer Guru. He would periodically run Scan Disk and Defrag on the computers in the office, and always did it at the most inconvenient times. One time, he did it to our Office Assistant's computer when she really needed to get some work done. After he walked away, I quietly told her that we could cancel it and just start it right before she went home. I also showed her how to do it herself.

Another time, this same supervisor pulled a stunt similar to koalamom's experience. Our Office Assistant came back to her desk to find him installing a printer/fax machine. However, he lost the drivers, and spent the whole day tying up her computer while trying to get them from our oh-so-competent computer support.

Ell"Could tell more horror stories but will stop"myruh