# Computer-retarded people make me cry. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 5, 2010, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-retarded-people-make-me-cry/549234 "2010-08-05T04:57:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2010, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-retarded-people-make-me-cry/549234/121 "2010-08-12T15:54:59Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > And if you could have just been arsed to say that in the first place I would have apologized. That’s how conversation works. FWIW, based on how I read his reply, he \*did \*say that in the first place. He was just rather snarky about it. ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2010, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-retarded-people-make-me-cry/549234/122 "2010-08-12T17:54:21Z")
Let us end this hijack now, please. Anyone who has a problem with how people post and respond are invited to take them to the Pit. **Ellen Cherry MPSIMS Moderator** ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2010, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-retarded-people-make-me-cry/549234/123 "2010-08-12T19:31:43Z")
I used to do computer contract work. One owner of a small retail business (5 stores) purchased a POS register system that would dial in to a server to upload the day’s receipts to a database. Well, this guy didn’t know a database, or anything approaching an office application. His entire experience was confined to AOL email and chat rooms and he stubbornly refused to do anything different. However, he insisted on using his POS software he’s purchased… So ultimately I had to write a script that, for each store, would at the end of each day dial into his personal AOL account, and email a .rtf file (which I also had a script that cleaned up the extract and reformatted it so it would read and print nicely) of the store’s POS data to him. Each morning he then printed out his emails, stuck them in a binder, which ultimately got handed to his unlucky accountant. “You’ve got mail!” ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2010, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-retarded-people-make-me-cry/549234/124 "2010-08-12T19:40:57Z")
:smack::smack::smack::smack::smack: ---
**Author:** ![melodyharmonius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/melodyharmonius/32/21310_2.png) [@melodyharmonius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/melodyharmonius)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2010, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-retarded-people-make-me-cry/549234/125 "2010-08-12T20:08:30Z")
I once had someone complain that their internet was really slow and that their bottom desktop bar was broken. It didn’t make sense to me, I knew that they had a fast internet connection. I sat down to look at it and realized that every time they connected to the internet, they were still using their dial-up option AND that they weren’t closing out from old screens - they were just minimizing. So their bar was “broken” because it had about 45 open windows on it . . . .(don’t ask me why the windows weren’t stacking - i dunno). So once I closed all their windows, disabled their dial-up and deleted the icon from the desktop and then made their IE icon say CLICK HERE FOR INTERNET (oh and clear out all their cache files and temp internet files) it was amazing how fast their computer was . . . . ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2010, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-retarded-people-make-me-cry/549234/126 "2010-08-12T20:26:18Z")
> [@melodyharmonius](#): > > don’t ask me why the windows weren’t stacking - i dunno You can disable that feature under the taskbar Properties settings. I do, because I loathe it. (Mainly because you can’t customize it in any way–it’s either on or it’s off.) ---
**Author:** ![B.Serum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/b.serum/32/14266_2.png) [@B.Serum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/B.Serum)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2010, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-retarded-people-make-me-cry/549234/127 "2010-08-12T20:53:50Z")
The sublime "[The Website Is Down: Sales Guy vs. Web Dude" video](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8_Kfjo3VjU). ---
**Author:** ![B.Serum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/b.serum/32/14266_2.png) [@B.Serum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/B.Serum)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2010, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-retarded-people-make-me-cry/549234/128 "2010-08-12T20:59:57Z")
> [@B.Serum](#): > > The sublime "[The Website Is Down: Sales Guy vs. Web Dude" video](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8_Kfjo3VjU). Actually, [Excel Hell](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SNxaJlicEU&feature=related) is more apropro to the topic at hand. ---
**Author:** ![Orionizer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/orionizer/32/4442_2.png) [@Orionizer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orionizer)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2010, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-retarded-people-make-me-cry/549234/129 "2010-08-13T16:40:03Z")
When in college, I was taking COBOL with a new professor. The professor had experience with COBOL, but guess what? OUR COBOL compiler was on a UNIX mainframe and she had NO EXPERIENCE with UNIX! I spent the first week or 2 of class showing all the students AND the professor how to login, create/move dirs, how to use vi, etc… Luckily, I had already taken our UNIX class or the class would not have been able to have been offered at all! ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2010, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-retarded-people-make-me-cry/549234/130 "2010-08-13T21:05:51Z")
> [@pepperlandgirl](#): > > I’m a writing instructor at a JC, and my class has an online component. All they have to do is set up a blog on [blogspot.com](http://blogspot.com) and post their assignments. Blogspot is dead easy to use, since Google couldn’t be more user friendly, and a number of them do have gmail addresses. But every semester, without fail, 1/3 of the class is very confused. I walked them through the process and patiently answer all their questions, and even then strange things happen. One girl would NOT send me her URL to the blog, she kept sending me her email address. Another one literally created a new blog for every assignment she turned in. Another created three different blogs and posted randomly (of course, neither one of them ever sent me a URL but they couldn’t figure out why they weren’t getting credit). One student _deleted_ several of her entries before I could grade them. She never saved them (wrote them directly to the composition window). When I asked her why she would do such a thing, she looked at me blankly and said “What?” Prompting this conversation: > > “Why would you delete your assignments?” > “Oh, well, I thought you graded them and I didn’t want it cluttering everything.” > “Did your receive a grade for them? No? Then why did you delete them?” > “…” > “Do you have another copy?” > “…wait, what are you talking about?” > > Believe it or not, I switched over to the blogging because it was literally easier than having them email me their assignments. It’s amazing to me how many 18-25 year olds do not know how to even email–explaining how to do attachments took several minutes of my day at least once a week. > > The older students always act like I’ve betrayed them by asking them to create a blog. Seriously, people, it’s not my problem. Learn to navigate the internet with a modicum of efficiency or switch to a class that’s still 100% paper-based. I’m really not asking for too much when I ask them to post on a blog. My I repost this at my livejournal community “Mock the Stupid”? ---
**Author:** ![Kiyoshi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e19adc/32.png) [@Kiyoshi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiyoshi)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2010, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-retarded-people-make-me-cry/549234/131 "2010-08-14T12:39:02Z")
> [@GargoyleWB](#): > > I used to do computer contract work. One owner of a small retail business (5 stores) purchased a POS register system that would dial in to a server to upload the day’s receipts to a database. > > Well, this guy didn’t know a database, or anything approaching an office application. His entire experience was confined to AOL email and chat rooms and he stubbornly refused to do anything different. However, he insisted on using his POS software he’s purchased… > > So ultimately I had to write a script that, for each store, would at the end of each day dial into his personal AOL account, and email a .rtf file (which I also had a script that cleaned up the extract and reformatted it so it would read and print nicely) of the store’s POS data to him. > > Each morning he then printed out his emails, stuck them in a binder, which ultimately got handed to his unlucky accountant. > > “You’ve got mail!” I don’t understand what the problem is. He employed you to do something, and you did it. What makes him “computer retarded”? ---
**Author:** ![Imasquare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Imasquare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Imasquare)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2010, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-retarded-people-make-me-cry/549234/132 "2010-08-14T14:54:13Z")
> [@Wheelz](#): > > **Rigamarole** , it does sound like the person in your OP might have a somewhat below-average level of computer knowledge. _So what?_ > > She didn’t know that the space where you type the name of the website is called an “address bar.” _So what?_ > > As an IT professional, isn’t it your job to help people who are, you know, _not_ IT professionals? In fact, I’d say a pretty basic description of what you get paid to do is to help people who know less than you do. Some may know a little less, some a lot less, but I don’t get how that makes any of them worthy of your ridicule and scorn. > > I think I kind of hate your attitude. The student in the OP was trying to log in to a web site but didn’t know what a web browser is. That is comparable to someone who watches television but doesn’t know what a remote control is. ---
**Author:** ![Silvorange](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@Silvorange](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silvorange)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2010, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-retarded-people-make-me-cry/549234/133 "2010-08-14T15:52:50Z")
> [@Imasquare](#): > > The student in the OP was trying to log in to a web site but didn’t know what a web browser is. That is comparable to someone who watches television but doesn’t know what a remote control is. You don’t need to know the names of those things to operate them, though. I used the internet for several years before I knew what the word “browser” referred to. It’s not like I was discussing them with anybody. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2010, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-retarded-people-make-me-cry/549234/134 "2010-08-14T17:01:08Z")
> [@Imasquare](#): > > > [@Wheelz](#): > > > > **Rigamarole** , it does sound like the person in your OP might have a somewhat below-average level of computer knowledge. _So what?_ > > > > She didn’t know that the space where you type the name of the website is called an “address bar.” _So what?_ > > > > As an IT professional, isn’t it your job to help people who are, you know, _not_ IT professionals? In fact, I’d say a pretty basic description of what you get paid to do is to help people who know less than you do. Some may know a little less, some a lot less, but I don’t get how that makes any of them worthy of your ridicule and scorn. > > > > I think I kind of hate your attitude. > > The student in the OP was trying to log in to a web site but didn’t know what a web browser is. That is comparable to someone who watches television but doesn’t know what a remote control is. It’s amazingly, shockingly common. Seriously. The number of people who don’t understand why, say, “Do these computers have Youtube on them?” is a stupid question would blow your mind. ---
**Author:** ![dhkendall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a9adbd/32.png) [@dhkendall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dhkendall)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2010, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-retarded-people-make-me-cry/549234/135 "2010-08-14T17:09:44Z")
> [@Imasquare](#): > > The student in the OP was trying to log in to a web site but didn’t know what a web browser is. That is comparable to someone who watches television but doesn’t know what a remote control is. Not quite, you can watch television without a remote control (I think any Doper over the age of, say, 30, has - heck even lately if I can’t find it there are still buttons on the TV (although since we got digital cable a month or so ago, we have to watch through the cable box which doesn’t have buttons and only works with its remote)) but you can’t browse websites without a browser (for all intents and purposes). ---
**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2010, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-retarded-people-make-me-cry/549234/136 "2010-08-14T17:17:09Z")
I think that part of the problem, at least for kids, is that school and library computers are often configured to limit where users can go and what they can do, so by the time they’re in college, they have no idea what to do because they’ve never been able to do it. For example, my local school district has a very strict “no attachments” policy for students. They can’t attach work to an e-mail to turn it in, nor can they access their personal e-mails to do it that way. When these same students get to college, they don’t know how to send an attachment or do similar tasks because they’ve never been allowed to. ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2010, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-retarded-people-make-me-cry/549234/137 "2010-08-15T06:06:28Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > It’s amazingly, shockingly common. Seriously. The number of people who don’t understand why, say, “Do these computers have Youtube on them?” is a stupid question would blow your mind. I regularly as an onsite tech run into a vicious combination of, what is feasible and or cost effective and “I am the customer so just make it happen or I will find someone who will” my most recent case involves a customer who just has to advertise on craigslist. But he wants ads in pretty colors like “competitor x” ok so we need to set up a photobucket Account, design an ad, then I will give you a link to post in the craigslist window. Basically he just wants to be able to type raw text somewhere and have it magically formatted to whatever colors/layout he wants and have it look like a guy who hired a graphic designer every time, and it’s somehow my failing that I cannot just “make it happen” without him having to know anything about HTML, art program, or hosting graphics on other sites. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2010, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-retarded-people-make-me-cry/549234/138 "2010-08-15T07:48:48Z")
> [@dhkendall](#): > > > [@Imasquare](#): > > > > The student in the OP was trying to log in to a web site but didn’t know what a web browser is. That is comparable to someone who watches television but doesn’t know what a remote control is. > > Not quite, you can watch television without a remote control (I think any Doper over the age of, say, 30, has - heck even lately if I can’t find it there are still buttons on the TV (although since we got digital cable a month or so ago, we have to watch through the cable box which doesn’t have buttons and only works with its remote)) but you can’t browse websites without a browser (for all intents and purposes). My mother once called me round to fix her TV. Turned out they’d lost the remote control and had no idea how to turn the TV on without it. Even when I showed them how to do it and change channels and so on, they were so afraid of doing something ‘wrong’ that they just permanently left the TV on the same channel until eventually they bought a new TV. It’s exactly the same mentality as being afraid to try anything at all with computers. My mother types everything in then retypes it all, like a typewriter, refusing to ‘risk’ going back in with the cursor and making corrections. (I did, however, once have a TV that couldn’t be switched to the AV channel by the buttons on the set, making it useless for me). ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2010, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-retarded-people-make-me-cry/549234/139 "2010-08-17T15:21:22Z")
Woman requests access to Database X for Client X, which I own, on Friday when I’m out. I see the request when I return on Monday and approve it. This morning, woman emails me. > [@](#): > > I have gone to the [general purpose Database Y] workflows data base but it is stating I am not authorized. Isn’t that where I would get the Client X workflow data base? Yes, that’s _exactly right_. If you want access to Database Y, which \*contains information for \*Client X, \*clearly \*the correct way to go about getting it is to request access to Database X, because it has Client X in the name. :smack: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-retarded-people-make-me-cry/549234.md?page=6)