Historical Insanity
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I volunteer at our local historical society by maintaining their web site and keeping the computers and Internet connection running at their building. The guy who runs the place, Fred, called me last week because they could no longer connect to the Internet. I got up early Sunday morning and Fred was there to let me in. They use DSL in conjunction with their phone number. I went through the usual checks, making sure everything was connected, the phone had a dial tone, etc. I quickly noticed that the DSL router's Internet light was not lit up, so I figured I would reset it. I waited about a minute, but still no Internet light. I tried resetting it again, still nothing, so I decided the next step would be to call the provider to test the line. Of course we didn't have the number handy, but we managed to use the yellow pages to get the number. I called up, patiently went through all the automated steps and testing before finally being connected with a rep. She verified some information and then told me she was going to test the line. A second later she told me, "Sir, the account is showing as being deactivated." She then very apologetically informed me that she couldn't reactivate it, I would have to call the accounts department during regular business hours.
After hanging up, I said to Fred and said, "That's odd, they said the account was deactivated."
His reply: "Well, we cancelled it because it was costing too much money."
I wonder how many more hours of sleep I would have gotten.
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I think that now they are in the process of wardriving a WiFi account...
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@kraagenskul said:
His reply: "Well, we cancelled it because it was costing too much money."
"Fred, meet Mr. Baseball bat."
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It's amazing how computers run on binary logic but somehow they deplete the logic in the person using the computer. What if automobiles had the same effect? "I sold my car to this guy and now I can't use my car because it's not in my driveway!" A truck driver is assigned to a truck that is a different colour and he "can't find it" in the parking lot that only contains the one truck?
Granted, the logic used by computers can be deeply hidden and people who aren't used to memorizing those sorts of things will have difficulty understanding that email comes through the same internet as www-dot-com but the number of times I've heard this account-deactivated WTF makes me go "WTF!"
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@Qwerty said:
I'm convinced it's fear. Sheer blind mind-numbing panic-inducing pants-wetting horror. I really believe that about 99% of all users seriously honestly fear that the computer will actually grow big teeth and bite them if they do something wrong.It's amazing how computers run on binary logic but somehow they deplete the logic in the person using the computer.
"I only pressed Ctrl-Alt-Del!"
Once you assume that they're in a permanent state of utter terror, the irrational and superstitious reactions become explicable.
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@DaveK said:
I'm convinced it's fear. Sheer blind mind-numbing panic-inducing pants-wetting horror. I really believe that about 99% of all users seriously honestly fear that the computer will actually grow big teeth and bite them if they do something wrong.
You've just described my mother in law.