Oldies vs ComputersAs someone who is "good with computers" I get a lot of calls from people who've got problems. Some of them even have problems with their computers.
Back many years ago working for a telecoms company, I was called to a senior secretary who "had put a disk into the drive and couldn't get it out". She had one of the first Mac II machines with two drive slots. But only one drive.
Opening up the case revealed stacks of floppy disks that she'd been posting through the hole in the case for weeks. She'd only decided there was a problem when her boss wanted one of them back...
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chthonic, Fri 22 Sep 2006, 13:58)
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My mother-in-lawOr to be more accurate, my ex mother-in-law (though ta the time these stories occurred we were still together). A geordie living down here in New Zealand. Opinionated shrill-voiced crow, but that's not important right here...
She invested in a computer probably three or four years ago. Cue much support coming from my ex, myself and also my kids. Showing nanna how to chat, print etc.
The defining moment in this was one visit down there. As per usual a visit down there was in some form or another prompted by an increasing crescendo of calls to my ex requesting assistance with said computer. According to her her CD drive wasn't working. Put in a CD and nothing happened. Over the phone I had talked her through trouble-shooting stage 1 - open windows explorer, click on D: etc etc. Nothing.
So we turn up and I motor off to the spare room, MIL close behind. I grab a CD, open the CD drive, insert CD and close the drive. Autostart clicks in and voila - no problem with CD drive. MIL shakes her head, wondering what I had done. So I go through the slow-motion "make-believe-you're-talking-to-a-three-year-old" training process. I press the button on the front of the CD drive to eject it, and she asks "what's that" "The CD Drive" I respond, that sinking feeling starting...
At which point MIL leans down and opens the CD storage unit on top of the computer (HP something-or-other) and points to CD sitting there "Isn't this the CD Drive?" she asks....
OMFG... She's had the computer for three years and now this...
I of course had much compassion for her innocent mistake. Sides aching from laughter, I called in my ex and the kids and shared with them what had happened...
Mind you, this is the same woman who, when we gave her a mobile phone, asked if the phone had to be switched on to receive phone calls.....
(, Sat 23 Sep 2006, 23:37, Reply)
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