That’s possible. If your job is to write code, you might be known as “the computer guy” and get asked to do computer support, which is like asking a stunt car driver to repair your transmission.
I seriously doubt this is the case for Acey, but…
One of my Uncle-in-Laws worked on computers for years at NORAD (got me a free tour too!) and was the bee’s knees when it came to computer hardware… from the 1960s. Whiz with a soldering iron as well. But I gave him one of our older PC’s because he’d been running a Windows 7 Box in 2015.
You can indeed be a computer whiz in narrow fields, or keeping obsolete tech running for business/military specifications, but utterly inept at modern machines. Heck, I know a guy who is an absolute expert at setting up modern servers, but is clueless when it comes to updating and maintaining their Android phone.
Something along those lines was my take.
He might be the last living COBOL programmer at some dying insurance company using a 3270 emulator program on a PC that an actual IT shop maintains. And so 100% of his actual “expertise” is on mainframe stuff. Or something else similarly divorced from modern work-a-day PC-centric reality.
Or … He’s just a … challenged … individual. After all, in the land of the blind the one-eyed man is King.
ETA: IOW what @ParallelLines snuck in while I was typing.
That’s always what I assumed. Yet he’s extremely knowledgeable and correct on complex music theory especially guitar. Then is he mystified about the most basic things that a child should know.
It’s better than his “Is it safe to put shelf-stable ultra-pasteurized milk in the refrigerator?”
Actually he ask would you use it to cook with or consume?
It’s a silly question, he woke up like Rip Van Winkle and discovered lots of fantastic new things. And had questions.
But not everyone sees every item in a store. Unless they’ve ran across a recipe or taste test how else could they know, but to ask?
Try again. (Reply is to beckdawrek)
I said repeatedly in that thread that I always thought shelf stable milk had a witches brew of chemicals and preservatives.
That’s why I refused to buy it for over 10 years. Manufacturers have been selling heavily processed, artifical foods since the 1950’s
Basic chemistry teaches chemicals become unstable and break down when heated or heavily chilled.
I had no idea that shelf stable milk was just pasteurized at much higher temperatures.
I found out at the SDMB.
Isn’t fighting ignorance the motto here?
Some posters are more about the fighting than the teaching.
Yes, you’re right.
It reminds me of “the trash is going bad because it’s getting cold.” (From a “Please Don’t Destroy” video sketch. Relevant part starts at 01:28).
Lol, that happens to me about once a day. (I’ve never asked sometime else to help me find it, though.)
Yes, but you have to admit that “is it safe to refrigerate this food?” is an unusual question.
Yup, that wasn’t a well thought out question. I’m not sure why that one happened. I have no excuses
Everyone says bone headed things or asks the stupid questions.
It’s not a crime.
I have no opinion of the IT stuff..I never read those threads.
Heheh, yeah. Part of my job is to tell folks who write code (and are really pretty good at writing it, better than I) why even if the code works as designed, the design is itself inherently broken if it was ever expected to behave that way. Had a call about that about a half hour ago. None of the solutions I can imagine are anywhere near the nexus of pretty, easy and reliable. I’m glad picking which solution we use isn’t my problem, I just get to be a critic, advisor and a realist doomsayer in this scenario.
I would turn these guys loose on any code-centered problem I could properly define. I would only turn them loose on troubleshooting customer problems on their own after at least six months of training. I have okay-ish front line techs who have a nebulous understanding of the difference between storage and memory, but they have experience and can sometimes even surprise you with their understanding of a particular problem. With the exception of a few developers who worked their way up through support, most of the devs I work with would probably be equivalent front line techs to my ignorant but somehow miraculously okay-ish techs without training.
All of that is a long winded way of saying "Yeah, we all have our blind spots, and can be idiots depending on the situation.’ If you have a problem with your Unix/Linux server, from anything such as hardware issues up to and including why your custom software is breaking; I’m probably your man. If you have a problem with a Windows machine of any type and you come to me for help, my response will begin with “You have already made a terrible mistake.”
That reminds me of my brother, who says that he’s known as “the computer guy” at his job (he works with disabled children, nothing tech-y). Whenever there’s a computer problem, they try to get him to fix it. He told me though that all he actually does is fiddle around with things and poke at help menus until either something fixes itself or he stumbles on the solution. Something nearly anyone could do. It’s simply that most people just give up early.
No it doesn’t? When heated, sure. There’s more energy and chemical bonds are more likely to break. When chilled? Almost never. If you’re really worried about an unstable chemical the solution is usually “stick it in a freezer”, or, in more extreme circumstances, “stick it in the -80°C freezer”.
I have a dual monitor setup at work and regularly ‘lose’ my mouse. I finally went into the windows settings and made the pointer slightly bigger and green. It looks stupid, but it’s a whole lot easier to find.
Oh, that’s an interesting idea. I usually push it so far that I’m sure it’s in one corner, and then look for it moving out of that corner.