At that price
they must be outsourcing the calls to India...please make it so

www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/technology/technologyadvice/5202108/New-helpline-aims-to-cut-through-technobabble.html
( fuck shit up the best you never had, Thu 23 Apr 2009, 11:00, 7 replies, latest was 16 years ago)

So
are people incapable of reading manuals and looking up things they don't understand on the internet?
(username1, Thu 23 Apr 2009, 11:08, Reply)

absolutely. There would be no demand for this service otherwise
Treat them like idiots and they'll act like idiots.
( fuck shit up the best you never had, Thu 23 Apr 2009, 11:10, Reply)

It's brilliant
Surely the point to research and understand the jargon being used is before you spend several hundred bob on a new shiny gadget?

'Well it's got this massive list of features, I don't know what any of them mean because they're too jargony and I'm a retard, but I bought it anyway because it was the most expensive one in Currys and the spotty 17 year old told me it was really good, so it must be.'

I despair at the intelligence of the average person, I really do.
(username1, Thu 23 Apr 2009, 11:16, Reply)

Seems like it
The plain English people irk me a bit. I can understand the desire to eradicate language like "time shift function" that doesn't really mean anything useful but if it's recognised technical language then leave it be and educate people.

Take ethernet for example. Changing everything to say network instead would be wrong as there are other ways to network but people without technical knowledge should be able to understand it. Using "Network cable (ethernet)" helps everybody. Non-techies understand and techies still get the information they're after.
( Captain V, Thu 23 Apr 2009, 11:19, Reply)

Ethernet means something completely different to network anyway!
'Network' is a general and fairly meaningless term. Ethernet refers to a series of defined standards on protocols, wiring, connectors, etc etc.

Most of the examples in the article are shit anyway, would you rather have a paragraph of text explaning something that already has a specific term for it?

Oh, and notwithstanding the probably incorrect use of the word phono, a 'connection point for the input or output of sound' is a SOCKET, a JACK is what you plug into it!
(username1, Thu 23 Apr 2009, 11:22, Reply)

Have you ever tried to get mobiles or music systems or anything else that is not all singing all dancing with 3 million functions that you just don't need.
Some people are just not technically minded. Especially the older generation that wasn't brought up with todays everyday technology.

I try to pick up jargon and techniques as I go along but sometimes I just don't understand something and having someone on the other end of a phone would be a great help.
( girlinthehole, Thu 23 Apr 2009, 11:25, Reply)

u1
Yea I know - wasn't really engaging my brain when I made that post!

@BGB I agree with you entirely. The idea is a good one and will hopefully make technology more accessible for those who make use of the service. The problem I have is the plain English people suggesting we replace technical terms that have real meaning with paragraphs of text that explain those terms...incorrectly.

Getting rid of marketing jargon like "time shift function" is important as it's confusing and meaningless. Technical jargon must be preserved though as it's meaningful, useful and important although it is confusing to many. This is where we need to improve but by explaining things rather than changing them. Perhaps encourage including both technical and non-technical manuals with appropriate goods but changing the language should not be a priority not least because they'd never be able to.
( Captain V, Thu 23 Apr 2009, 11:41, Reply)