Stupid computer-lab people slightly annoy me, and so I post about them.

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

This is waaaay too lame for the Pit, and this is my first cigarette-free final exam period ever, so to MPSIMS we go.
That said, I am now working in a small computer lab in a library on campus. Not many people come in here. It’s why I study here. I like that I can talk to myself or move around. The lab is NOT a quiet area, which is nice, but it’s still in the library, so it’s not a free-fire zone when it comes to yelling and what have you. It’s also a dead-cellphone zone, so that’s nice.

However, there are a number of people that disrupt my flow. These people are morons and I will tell you why.
There is a printer in this computer lab. Since no one comes in here, it is almost never used. The main computer lab has many printers, and so there is little need for this one. It doesn’t have a funny name like the printers in the main lab- it just goes by a number. But some people do know about it, and many of those people are morons.

Two or three times an hour, some moron will come in here with his/her data key/thumbdrive. He/she will sit down at one of the terminals in here, log in, and pull up some document. Moron will then print out the document, log out, and leave (what this means, of course, is that moron had to log off of his/her own laptop, walk in here, log back on, and fire up the document). Two out of five morons will jam the printer. One out of those two morons will ask me for help. I am thinking of posting this sign, or perhaps getting a t-shirt.

  1. I am not the print tech. The only reason I am helping you is because, if I don’t help you, you will stand around, talking to yourself, or breaking the printer in an attempt to fix it. Or, you’ll just mutter to yourself, leave the room and foist the problem off on the next moron. Or, God help me, you’ll try printing your document three or twenty-five more times. So say “thanks.” Or bring me food. I don’t work here.

  2. You can add this printer to your laptops print options. Just search for network printers and add the one with the numbers on it- the same numbers written in bold black magic marker on the front of the damn printer. That will save you from having to log out, walk over here, log in, and print. And I know that this is a concern for you, because you bitch about it! And don’t tell me that’s too esoteric for you, because that’s the exact same process you used to set up the other printers- only they had funny names and this one doesn’t.

  3. SHUT THE F… oh, that’s right. It’s not a quiet zone in here. But still, you’d be out of my hair a lot faster if you just walked in, grabbed your document, and left.

2

This is off subject, but since you mention printers, do you have any idea why the color printer down the hall always prints the first page in B&W no matter what I do? All the other pages are fine.

3

Oh, sure.

That’s a simple problem, easily fixable.

4

Heh. I worked in the computer lab when I was in college too. People are morons in general, but I find that those who (don’t have their own computers, and therefore have to use the ones in the lab) are the biggest morons.
“Why isn’t my document printing?”
“How many times did you hit the print button?”
“Just once, why?”
“Because you have the same document set to print exactly 73 times, did someone come and push the print button while you weren’t looking?”

5

Back when I worked in a college computer lab, I had a few… special students.

One of them was a regular- she came in at least three or four times a week. Very nice girl, fun to talk to, and fairly attractive. However, there was something about her that crashed computers as soon as she touched them.

Every time she came in, I’d start heading over to her- because as soon as she started doing something on the computer, it’d crash.

Nice girl, though.
The only person I ever had trouble with in that job was my boss. When she was in the building, I couldn’t sit down- because she wanted me to look busy. Even though, of course, I’d already taken care of everything. Oh, and there was the fact that she wouldn’t hire me on full time (with the corresponding benefits), even though I worked the occasional 56-hour week. :eek:

She also hired a woman to be my boss. I have no trouble with women bosses- what I do have a problem with, though, are people who are hired above me but who don’t know the first thing about DOS. Seriously- she’d gotten a computer science degree of some sort, but didn’t know anything about how to actually use a computer. She got hired on full time, of course, even though she wasn’t in the office near as much as I was.

Luckily she quit less than three months later.

6

I’m not sure if I made this clear enough, but…

I don’t work in the computer lab.

Well, I guess I do work IN the computer lab, but I’m not a computer-lab worker.

I’m just some guy who does his homework in here.

7

So, Scrappy, don’t you have to handle dtupid people like that if you’re in that kind of job? Maybe you’d be happier elsewhere.

8

[QUOTE= Napier]
So, Scrappy, don’t you have to handle dtupid people like that if you’re in that kind of job? Maybe you’d be happier elsewhere.
[/QUOTE]

I’m not in that kind of job.

I don’t work for the school. I’m not a lab tech.

I’m just some dude who does his homework in the near-deserted computer lab because there’s just the right amount of quiet, yet noise is permitted. I’m not drawing a check to be here.

The reason people ask me for help is because they assume I know what I’m doing because I do my homework in here rather than out there.

Some people don’t ask. They stand there and talk to themselves out loud. Which is permitted, but annoying. Sometimes they do it for (seemingly) the express purpose of getting me to help them. I help them because it makes them go away faster.

Some people bang on the printer or submit the same job 100 times because they are under the impression that an error in the print queue is like a kink in a garden hose- put enough pressure behind it and it’ll straighten out. Some people shake the printer or try to pry things loose that shouldn’t come loose. I help these people because I’m going to need the printer eventually, and it won’t be there if they break it.

These last two groups of people cheese me off because their idiocy interrupts my work flow. The first group, I don’t mind so much.
But if I’m in the middle of something, the reason I don’t drop everything and help you is because I don’t HAVE to, what with the not working here and all.

9

>I help these people because I’m going to need the printer eventually, and it won’t be there if they break it.
If you could get clearer instructions posted near the printer, that’d help - do you guys offer some kind of help docs or whatever to your users?

>These last two groups of people cheese me off because their idiocy interrupts my work flow.
But they’re trying to get their own work done, of course. Though I appreciate how much trouble it can be to support these kinds of things especially for nonspecialists and folks just passing through.

10

[QUOTE= Napier]
If you could get clearer instructions posted near the printer, that’d help - do you guys offer some kind of help docs or whatever to your users?
[/QUOTE]

There’s an actual help guy two floors up in the main computer lab. There are help docs posted right outside the computer helpdesk. They’re all online, too.

[QUOTE= Napier]
But they’re trying to get their own work done, of course. Though I appreciate how much trouble it can be to support these kinds of things especially for nonspecialists and folks just passing through.
[/QUOTE]

And I certainly don’t begrudge them that. If they come in, joking with a pal, or humming, or bitching out loud to nobody in particular, to grab their document, I don’t care. it’s a noise-permitted environment, and what’s good for me is good for them. No hard feelings- or at least no rationally-grounded hard feelings.
The issue is the morons who don’t read the help doc, who print out a document, who come in, stare blankly at the printer, leave, re-send the print request, come back, stare blankly at the printer, opine out loud to themselves that they don’t know what’s happening or why, press some buttons on the printer randomly, then leave again, and go print their document from a thumb-drive in the computer lab upstairs, leaving a clogged, blocked print queue for the next moron, who will do the same thing.

Argh.

Mild anger. On an intellectual level and a practical one. I end up clearing the print queue and resolving the error because, if I don’t, the poor bastard who does will be drowned in paper while he waits for his own document that, unbeknownst to him, is # 675 in the queue.