Computers are boring...

[doodab]

Computers are Boring, People are Cool

I seem to recall this as something some web trendy marketing nathan barley dickhead type came up with a few years ago. S/He clearly never had to deal with the sort of people I encounter on a daily basis.

[Moscow Mule]

I seem to recall this as something some web trendy marketing nathan barley dickhead type came up with a few years ago. S/He clearly never had to deal with the sort of people I encounter on a daily basis.

Computers are tools, lots of people are right tools too.

[d000hg]

Computers are interesting when they're in bits, the moment they are working they are a pain in the arse. My friends think I'm being silly when I tell them I don't like computers, but I really don't. I like solving problems and then writing code in a safe little box on a computer, but I hate setting up the computer, setting up the safe little box to work in, and making my code talk to all the other code others' wrote.

[doodab]

I like breaking the screwdrivers out, setting networks and hardware up, coding, the whole lot really. I don't mind dealing with people either, as long as they know what they are talking about.

I think there are a few two many people in IT who don't know how stuff works and don't really want to know. In a way this is good because it leaves plenty of opportunity for those of us who'll have a go at anything.

[vetran]

depends on the computers, depends on the people, depends on their relationship to you.


Constantly amazes me intelligent people who depend on computers for their job refuse to try and understand them. Imagine if you said to your boss:

"yeah people I know they exist but I'm too important to understand them I'll leave that to other departments, if they get upset with me misusing them or hitting & swearing at them I'll call in HR and yell at them to fix it - T don't do people"

The other one is that they constantly moan IT are bad at communicating with people and never get anything done but when a project runs and you allocate tasks to them and their employees you end up doing their part anyway (normally convincing people that report to them to complete tasks they should have had for months) as the deadline approaches.

[BoredBloke]

What I don't like about computers is that because I know a bit about them, I'm seen as the person who can fix them for free if anything goes wrong. I used to build computers for mates but stoped after a while. The main reason was because they wanted the top of the range PC with bargain basement prices, meaning I'd have spend ages searching out the parts. They would use it for a couple of years installing all manner of crap on them, often without any virus scanning software and then after years of faithfull working something would happen and I would be expected to fix it because I built it. I had one guy who asked me to look at his computer because it was running slowly and asked if I could put Office on it for him for free. Unfortunately the microsoft fairy had stopped popping by my house and tulipting out a fresh set of office keys and I had to refuse.

[Sysman]

What I don't like about computers is that because I know a bit about them, I'm seen as the person who can fix them for free if anything goes wrong. I used to build computers for mates but stoped after a while. The main reason was because they wanted the top of the range PC with bargain basement prices, meaning I'd have spend ages searching out the parts. They would use it for a couple of years installing all manner of crap on them, often without any virus scanning software and then after years of faithfull working something would happen and I would be expected to fix it because I built it.

I think the worst example of expecting free support was a colleague who recommended an Apricot to a mate, hoping to sell him one and make a few bucks. The mate bought one elsewhere then expected my colleague to provide free support "because you recommended it". It doesn't work that way.

I had one guy who asked me to look at his computer because it was running slowly and asked if I could put Office on it for him for free. Unfortunately the microsoft fairy had stopped popping by my house and tulipting out a fresh set of office keys and I had to refuse.

I had a lot of this crap until 10 years ago when I got a Mac. I could then honestly say "I don't do PCs or Windows".

Microsoft's early practice of making piracy easy has a lot to answer for. I always thought it was deliberate to get the market share they wanted. Of course you will never get them to admit that.

[d000hg]

Constantly amazes me intelligent people who depend on computers for their job refuse to try and understand them. Imagine if you said to your boss:

"yeah people I know they exist but I'm too important to understand them I'll leave that to other departments, if they get upset with me misusing them or hitting & swearing at them I'll call in HR and yell at them to fix it - T don't do people"

Other than the hitting part, that pretty much sums up your average developer.

[BoredBloke]

Microsoft's early practice of making piracy easy has a lot to answer for. I always thought it was deliberate to get the market share they wanted. Of course you will never get them to admit that.

A mate of mine does a lot of work with microsoft and knows many of the office development staff. He went to a conference where a microsoft bod was highlighting piracy issues. The biggest competitor to Office, by market share, is pirated copies of Office rather than open office and the like.

[xoggoth]

Computers could do far more to insulate us from ghastly people.

For example, I know CUK has a basic ignore facility which means I don't have to read anything by sasaguru but why can't we have some proper AI that converts all comments by lefty sorts into sensible righty stuff? An intelligent email scanner that lost all invites from relatives would be great too.