Plug and play my backside
Grandad June 8th, 2007
I have one of those wireless thingys for my computer.
It had a hissy fit yesterday, and I couldn’t do anything with it, so I decided to reset it this morning.
I pressed the little reset button on the back, and that is when the fun began.
You see, I’d lost the manual for the wireless thingy, and also all the settings that my broadband people had given me. So I rang them. I got through straight away, which was a miracle. But it was karma playing a joke on me, because I got onto a bloke who was so foreign I could only understand about one word in ten.
We held the conversation purely by guesswork. If I didn’t understand anything he said, I would say something at random, like my address or phone number. The odd time, I would pick out a word and we’d make some progress. Eventually, after about ten minutes, I got the information I wanted. The whole thing wasn’t helped by the fact that his records showed that I had been disconnected about a year ago, and that I didn’t exist any more. I sometimes think that myself.
So I started putting the numbers into my wireless thingy. I kept denying myself permissions to get into it, like cutting off the branch you’re sitting on. So I had to keep resetting it. The reset button is getting a bit worn now.
I got it working eventually, and I am back into the Interweb. I’ve wasted a whole morning of porn research though.
If I buy a new toaster and bring it home, I just plug it into the wall and make my toast. Why can’t computers be the same? They used to rant on about plug-n-play or whatever you call it, but it isn’t like that. You’d need a Masters Degree in Advanced Mathematics to get one of these yokes running.
And they wonder why there aren’t many of us old folks on-line?
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It’s a conspiracy to warrant a service call.
Us IT folks have to earn a living too you know. So there is little else that is as lucrative as a 10 min service call charged at €100 for a quick and simple matter for those in the know
But they can’t charge me because I don’t exist.
Computers and stupid customer staff have their advantages!!
Life was so simple when a folder was manilla coloured and we punched a hole on the letters etc, threaded them onto a treasury tag and stuck them in the drawer
I very nearly punched a hole in my computer. But I don’t think that would have done much good.
“wireless thingy” and “a hissy fit”?
Those must be technical terms.
“I’d lost the manual for the wireless thingy, and also all the settings that my broadband people had given me”
Manuals, manuals, we don’t need no stinkin’ manuals!
“and make my toast. Why can’t computers be the same?”
The system that makes your toaster work was NOT designed by Bill Gates et al!!
Oh, ya’ gotta’ love Technopeasants
So I’m a Technopeasant, am I? If so, then I’m proud of the fact. The world managed very well until they invented these computer thingies.
I feel your pain. Re: no manual? Chances are it wouldn’t have made a bit of difference.
I’ve been a Mac person - still am at work - but changed to PC when everything neat on the innerweb was PC only.
I’m ready to go BACK TO MAC.
We may be technopeasants… but age has nothing to do with it. You got it working, without a technolord’s assistance.
My philosophy is basically: Bill Gates is a prick.
I agree, Grandad. It’s when the thingummy that needs a whatsit before it will interface with the whatchamaycallit tells you it doesnt recognise the gizmo you were told was compatible and you need to download a lot of gobbledegook and find a different compatible yokeybob to plug in its port that i think “beam me up Scotty”. Do ya folly me?
What really made me laugh -
I was working on the wireless thingy and had a problem. So I clicked Help. And the f*cking thing came back at me whinging that it couldn’t connect to the Internet. Of course it couldn’t connect to the Internet - that’s what I was asking for help about!!!!
I remember years ago I saw a computer being fired up. It came back with a message - “Keyboard not found. Press any key to continue…”.
And these people are supposed to be the brains of the planet?????????
You as you describe the problem it may have been a PEBKAC error. Pretty easy to fix, really. Though it may have been an ID-10-T error also.
Goinlikesixty..it’s TechnoGods not lords and yes Bill Gates should have been up against the wall years ago.
I like the Microsoft site - when you’re internet goes down, you look up the manual for assistance and they ask you to log on for hellpdesk. Hello . . .no internet you morons! And why is it all these TechnoGods live 12,000 miles from we TechnoPeasants . . .Brian, you need to start a helldesk for foreign TechnoPeasants, I’d be your biggest subscriber and pay you in Vegemite . .at least you don’t need a manual to use that.