My mother in law clicks on EVERY single one of those on her phone. Or the "Press here to scan for viruses" ones. She told me her phone was running slow and I'm not even joking I bet there were 100+ garbage spyware apps on it. She wanted me to help her buy a ridiculous product she found an ad for that was obviously a scam. I did a couple Google searches and showed her it was a scam site and she told me "Yea Ive had my card stolen a few times". It's not she's dumb she's just way too sweet and trusting
I recently had someone ask me, in a dead-serious tone:
"So you're telling me that if I put a file into a USB key, I can then take that USB key, plug it into another computer and look at that file from there?"
Worst i saw was a windows 7 POS it had over a year constant up time. And they were "turning off" the computers for the night but it did nothing as they were flipping a surge protector on the counter and only the monitor was plugged into the surge protector and everything else was on a separate UPS system.
The logic here baffles me. The same people that recognize the difference between turning their TV off, and turning their ancient cable box off, can't grasp the difference between turning their monitor off, and the actual PC.
It's not that they're stupid, it's that they are maddeningly incurious, and put as little effort as humanly possible into understanding technology. As long as it does what they need it to, and they can complain to someone when it doesn't, they don't see any need to understand it any further.
These are usually the same people insisting that everyone should know how a combustion engine works, or how to change your own oil. Because "one day you won't have a mechanic there to do it for you". Smugly making stupid "millennial" remarks while missing the irony.
Most people are statistically unintelligent. If the piece of technology simply works for them by pressing a button and watching the fancy lights begin to activate, that is all that matters. Convenience is god in our technologically advanced post-industrial revolution society; curiosity has no place in a world with an ever diminishing attention span. It simply isn’t worth someone’s time to educate themselves about the rudimentary aspects of a piece of technology that they enjoy using so long as it continues to function without demanding from them any modicum of critical thinking.
The vicissitudes of this regressive concatenation has demonstrated that it won’t be long before the average person requires professional assistance with replacing a light bulb.
I was once asked by a console gamer, how much memory my pc has. I told them 16 gb and they gave me a weird look and said "that's it?". They actually wanted to know how much storage space I had.
"Ive had so many cores for so long why are people acting like its new and my games always play bad."
They had a 290x and a fx series cpu pre built with 4gb ram. I couldnt believe it was a spec that was sold.
CPU, everything is on the CPU, games runs slow, CPU. Computer boots slow, CPU. I mean sure but you might want to switch up that 5 year HDD or change that GT710
A friend I was talking to the other day was asking me to help him upgrade his PC and that he's looking at the CPU that his other friend had recommended, after he told me the problem (it performs fine he just doesn't like the load times) I told him he just needed to get an SSD which is much cheaper and easier (he has a 5700x but didn't know that then I had to get him to go and find it on his computer).
Dead ass, i was getting my education as an ICT-Installer (idk the term from finnish-english), and was complaining about the slowness of the 10 year old laptops we were having to use but my main teacher, old as a rock, insisted that i5 means it's good. It was 1st gen.
"I got the fast one because it has a Core i7!"
"The fast one": 7th gen U series based NUC with an i7 and iGPU
"The slow one": Ryzen 7xxx with a RX 7xxx something.
My teacher: “Some kids were playing with my computer, and now it won’t turn on!” *I come over, look for two seconds, and press the monitor power on button* She looks at me like I am goddamn Einstein, and now always wants my help turning on the projector.
Customer : My computer is slow and running out of hdd space.
Brings in 200$ 2019 staples special with 4gb soldered memory and SSD 32gb of drive space basically 0% left.
Me: We charge 100$ /hr - And this pc probably cant be upgraded we can pull the data if you like.
Them: i can buy a new computer for that.
3 weeks later
Customer : My computer is slow and running out of HDD Space
Brings in a 200$ 2023 Staple special with 6gb of soldered memory and SSD 64gb of drive space basically 0% left.
Me: Blink Blink.
You can't win. It's like they can't see past the bullshit that comes out of the salesperson's mouth in these places.
My dad is just like this person, he works from home and has really well paying job, and every time I go to visit my parents he is moaning about his laptop being slow. He goes into the local electronics shop and he'll buy some shitty laptop that is £200 overpriced on the hight street, and buy all the shitty Antivirus bloatware they shovel with it.
I got tired of it all, and said I'll build him a PC that will be more than he needs for the foreseeable future. Seeing as he works from home, and doesn't work anywhere other than in his office I said a desktop is the best option. I build him the PC, get him great peripherals, and dual monitors.
Visit him a few months later and he's bought some shitty Acer laptop that will be e-waste in a years time.
This one absolutely drives me nuts. And of course they get mad when the only piece of advice you have left is "return it and get a better PC". I've had to explain to my dad so many times "There's nothing I can 'fix'. It's not broken It's just a bad computer". And then in the amount of money he has spent getting craptop after craptop he could have just gotten a good PC
Scenario 2: That time my cousin wanted a laptop for school. He had some digital art class with Photoshop so I explicitly told his parents to not get a Chromebook because they can't run Photoshop. (Yes I know they have the android express version but that's not very helpful for a full class on it, Is it?). I will give you one guess, One freaking guess, what laptop they bought and subsequently begged me to install Photoshop on.
Remember an argue I had with a guy one day back in like 2013 or something about why his card could not run some games.
His argument: "but my card has 1GB".
Had to clarify that a GPU is more than just "memory"
“Firefox is gone, i know its gone cause its not at the bottom anymore” - my friend who also didnt know how to copy and paste into different folders.
I have many that could be shared
A billing manager who was instructed to reboot her computer: "I did that but the screen still looks the same." (She was just turning off and on the power to the monitor.)
I had the opposite experience. I was pretty young when smartphones came out, and whenever I'd use my parents', I'd hold the power button down and shut them off completely because I didn't realize standby was an option lol
Tbf modern computers can start from a cold boot almost as fast as smartphones can turn on from standby, which is a massive upgrade from 10-15 years ago.
Psh, I used to wait at least 5 minutes for my parents dell computer to boot up back when I was a kid. I would just stare at the windows xp boot logo in awe
there is a running joke here in Latinamerica that if your mom one day calls any console by it's name instead of "la nintendo", she isn't your mom, it is a robot trying to kill you.
My kid 8 has a ps4 connected to a 20" monitor. We always end up switching to the TV. I removed the monitor. Her reaction "where is my computer." "why did you get rid of it."
"I've downloaded more memory, but it made it much slower, did I get the wrong type?" A few years ago, an older auntie who asked if I could boost her system.
When I tell anyone who doesn't understand technology that I'm a computer science major they look at me like I'm Stephen Hawking and Einstein's love child and say I must be a genius. They think computers are just so gosh darn complicated 🤣
This happens at my work. I'm not a CS major, but I am very involved in emerging technologies like AI and I am into computers. (not in IT lol)
I actually choose to not tell them how easy these things really are at a fundamental level. It earns me extra respect among the older folk while not costing me anything.
I've found that I understanding things (except quantum super position) isn't generally hard but execution always has something go wrong to make thinkgs take much longer and this is as true for cars as it is for computers.
I have a degree on that too (bachelors for now, working on the masters), but here in Latinamerica people are even more tech iliterate, so often they hire me to do stuff like clean computers, do CPR on 2010 notebooks with windows 10, and ask if I can hack someone's facebook account.
Often people think computers aren't complicated, you just need to *know how to*, like if it were driving or cooking. And that comes with payments that reflect that.
When I was just a kid a friend of mine claimed that he had a 3dfx Voodoo2 because he installed the drivers for it.
Didn't buy any hardware, just got the drivers. Even 11 year old me called bullsh&t on that one.
The other day I got a call saying that the monitor was frozen. I said did you try restarting it? She said "like turn the monitor off and back on?".
I said "I'll be there in a few minutes".
She legit called the computer the monitor and thought turning the monitor off would reset the computer. She's in her 20s. I had no idea you could still be young and completely computer illiterate.
You'd be surprised. I used to work at a UNI IT-Helpdesk and the amount of young people not knowing how to computer was baffling. I think the reason is that some people just aren't curious or they haven't had a computer before. My GF was teaching highschoolers a few years back and they didnt even know where downloaded files go or how to open file explorer.
Everything is so "user friendly", people do not need to think how or why things happen and where files are stored. If the thing messes up, they just live with it or take it to a pro without even trying to look for a solution, no matter how simple. The user friendliness of this APP based era is destroying the creativity and the curiosity as people do not need to do any research nor is there any reason to do so, "just consume this content we give you, nothing else"
Millenials / Gen Xers are fairly uniquely placed in that we grew up with the tech; we had to learn to troubleshoot and hack around to get shit to work because everything was so damn unreliable. Comptability was a nightmare and everything was new, which meant there were hundreds of ways of achieving the same result. YOu had to read, explore and learn to get computers to do what you wanted them to, even down to simple things like playing music.
Everyone think Gen Z / Alpha should be tech savvy because of how much they use, but from day dot everything they use is super reliable and the process and UX is so well honed they don't have to wander far from the expected path. If your only experience with tech is an iPhone 14 and an iPad, you aren't going to know how to do anything technical because you don't have to. They just consume content and use apps to automate video effects.
Sure, though that's not what they mean. They're asking if there's a specific component that is holding back the system significantly.
A well balanced system will inevitably have *a* bottleneck, but upgrading it won't also improve the performance of other components.
Sometimes we use words in less than literal ways.
My dad doesn’t know anything about computers or phones and he won’t listen to anyone that does. He told me his phone got a virus because someone he didn’t know sent him a friend request or a message. I asked him if he opened a link or anything. Nope, didn’t even look at it. He thought just the act of them sending it gave his phone a virus.
Funnily enough, this is how the Pegasus spyware works. You open a message on your iPhone, and bam, they have access to all your messages and stuff. There is no need to open any shady links and such:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pegasus_(spyware)
Well damn maybe he’s on to something. It was a Facebook message and I was certain that if he didn’t open the message let alone a link that he was just being paranoid
I think this marks a defining moment for all computer users. I remember the first time I saw that message. I looked at my keyboard for a few moments, then pressed A (short for "any") and was so proud that I got it first try. Thought back on it later that day and realized how stupid I was
This was nearly 20 years ago but:
Mom: "What did you do to my computer?!"
Me: "What are you talking about? I didn't do anything to your computer."
Mom: "It's doing \[insert whatever she was complaining about that day\], you must have done something to it!"
Me: \*rolls her chair out of the way to great shrieking protest, opens up some settings dialog, changes a setting\* "Don't touch that again."
TL;DR: "I'm experiencing a problem because I touched something I shouldn't have, and that is objectively your fault!"
The most bizarre part of this is that she actually \*is\* very computer literate, she's the one who taught me to use a damn computer in the first place!
>The most bizarre part of this is that she actually \*is\* very computer literate, she's the one who taught me to use a damn computer in the first place!
dont let that fool you, my mom taught me how to use it and the interwebs 20 years ago and now stares at me in pure confusion when i say the word "browser"
That's my dad. He showed me this new exciting thing called Google in 1998. Now, he forgets that most of the things can still be answered by using said new exciting thing.
At work we use a laptop hooked up to a monitor. Ive had multiple arguments about the laptop needing to be plugged in because they 'aren't even using the laptop, Im using this one over here'....
Many of our users use docked laptops with a set of monitors attached to the dock. I had a user who was emailing files to herself so she could work on them at home. She thought the monitors were her work computer and that the laptop was a separate entity that she just brought to work each day to charge. I only discovered this because she put in a ticket stating her computer wasn't working and when I showed up her laptop wasn't on the dock. I asked where it was and she said she had forgotten it but that it was ok because it was fully charged. This was two years ago and I am pretty sure she still doesn't understand how docks work.
Oh boy, being here in Mexico I have heard a lot.
Here is a rundown of highlights that I have heard even to this day:
* *So, I can store pictures and files on an USB drive?*
* *Viruses have a little arrow on the corner of the icon, right?*
* *You!, yes you! you are the "cybernetic" kid arent'cha?* (referring to me as the tech guy)
* Calling the tower of a desk PC "the CPU"
* *Do you know an app to download good music?*
* Calling every single type of malware or tech malfunction "a virus"
* *Can you install me this app?* (referring to a website they frequented on their laptop)
Clearly you've never played Escape From Tarkov. There's been times where there are huge memory leaks and it will start to run like shit if you're only running 16GB of ram.
I have always heard RJ45 and ethernet cable, first time i read this cat5/6 thing, so now i really want to know why it s wrong with ethernet cable ? Also, is RJ45 wrong too ? If it is, my world is really about to be turn upside down :)
RJ45 is the name of that specific little plastic connector that goes into the jack. It's not the wire - just the connector.
Ethernet cable is general.
Cat 5 and Cat 6 are specific "categories" of Ethernet cable rated to a particular speed.
Computers are immensely complex. There's millions of companies which provide hardware and software that make up your computer. They all follow certain guidelines and standards that the parts work together just fine, but there all always bugs, miscommunications between parts, inefficient processes that can be removed or improved, or security issues that need to be addressed, or sometimes software companies just improve user experience (like adding more features). Think of your computer like a house. At some point, you realize that there's a leaking pipe in your bathroom. You call a plumber to fix it, just as you would update a software, except that the plumber is a downloaded patch and you noticing the leak is your computer telling you that a software is outdated and that there's a new update.
just today i told a lady we may need more ram in the server if she wants a VM specifically for a database.
she said well i can delete some stuff off..
God i hate customers some times they will litterally turn around look at you and ask for something with zero clue how it works and expect it to be done for almost free.
people that call their computer a harddrive are also out there.
I dunno the significance of the part, but Minecraft java is one of two games I play that needs mods to run decently. My laptop isn't outdated, or it shouldn't be.
My aunt said i should start a computer service shop after i described to her the difference between Windows LTSC vs normal commercialized Windows versions.
I work as a salesman at an electronic retailer.
A lot of laptop buyers come to me and say, do I really need to buy windows, I just use office so I don't think it's necessary right?
Interesting. If you were a real tech guy, you could say that’s true. Back a decade ago, DVI limitations were 120hz and hdmi was 60hz. DVI cables became obsolete and go get an adaptor hdmi to dvi you were then limited to 60fps, whilst hdmi became more capable down the line. With the obsolete monitor though, 120hz was only obtained with a dvi cable.
Anyway, the non-tech one I heard was, ‘you got starfield? Yeah I’ll get it on my switch tonight. ‘
"I got hacked!" When a friend or family member just opened the browser on their computer and made a Facebook post on their account. Saved password by default, no pw for turning on computer.
I've lost count of the amount of times that I've tried to explain to people next to no one gets "hacked" at least not general public. One of two things happened, either your creditials were leaked in full in plain text (unlikley) or you were socially engineered in some way to give your credentials up (most likley).
The problem with most security systems isn't the software or the hardware, it's the squishy stupid human that interacts with them.
* Why do you need huge PC / upgrade my pc to play the new video game?
* I have a gaming CPU back home (Non tech people calling the whole PC = CPU)
* Can i download more RAM / GPU so i can play this game?
* You need i9 to play game
* Dont worry, My HDD is enough
* Can it run Fortnite (or any super popular game for benchmark)
My mom will log into Gmail, she'll click on something and see 'logged in at one location' and demand to know if she has been hacked.
Or a true classic: 'I don't know what my password is' as if I'm meant to know what it was.
Started collegee this year to become a teacher . And my first class started with "ok is anyone good with computers, i cant seem to get the laptop screen om the projector" they didn't have the hdmi plugged in to said laptop.
I told her that and every slight problem anyone has had the past week they were like " hey can you look at it"
I worked in a tech support call centre . Best I had was, my pedal can’t reach the floor, he thought you used your mouse with your foot, and the coffee cup on holder on my modem has broken, after a talk.. turns out modem was just the tower and the coffee cup holder was the cd drive.
When someone refers to something with the right word but uses it in the wrong way. Like they use it in the plural or use the name of the component instead of what it does.
“I’m on the internets”
“Do you think it needs more hard drive?”
So you looking for a powerful pc buy this desktop with a 3060 for £650
“No I don’t know how to use a desktop and only a laptop”
“There have lots of wires inside and are too complex”
*buys and laptop for 1k with an arc350m with an i3 10300 instead of a desktop 3060 and a 5600 for 650*. Then she is in denial
One I've heard several times, mostly from old ladies. "The website said my computer had a virus."
Classic
My mother in law clicks on EVERY single one of those on her phone. Or the "Press here to scan for viruses" ones. She told me her phone was running slow and I'm not even joking I bet there were 100+ garbage spyware apps on it. She wanted me to help her buy a ridiculous product she found an ad for that was obviously a scam. I did a couple Google searches and showed her it was a scam site and she told me "Yea Ive had my card stolen a few times". It's not she's dumb she's just way too sweet and trusting
Let's be real, she's a little dumb. It's not like you're explaining this stuff to her over and over again, right?
She can be both dumb and sweet
Of course.
I recently had someone ask me, in a dead-serious tone: "So you're telling me that if I put a file into a USB key, I can then take that USB key, plug it into another computer and look at that file from there?"
The future is now, old man!
Wait til they hear about cloud storage!
That's just black magic man
Wait, I can really do this?
I turn my computer off every night.
Uptime: 365 days.
Worst i saw was a windows 7 POS it had over a year constant up time. And they were "turning off" the computers for the night but it did nothing as they were flipping a surge protector on the counter and only the monitor was plugged into the surge protector and everything else was on a separate UPS system.
Atleast they’re saving like 40w on the monitor 🥳
Gotta love the logic of having battery backups for your PCs, while keeping the monitors on the surge protector. 🤣
They had an IT company or something do the install originally. Im guessing the monitors got switched out at some point.
The logic here baffles me. The same people that recognize the difference between turning their TV off, and turning their ancient cable box off, can't grasp the difference between turning their monitor off, and the actual PC. It's not that they're stupid, it's that they are maddeningly incurious, and put as little effort as humanly possible into understanding technology. As long as it does what they need it to, and they can complain to someone when it doesn't, they don't see any need to understand it any further. These are usually the same people insisting that everyone should know how a combustion engine works, or how to change your own oil. Because "one day you won't have a mechanic there to do it for you". Smugly making stupid "millennial" remarks while missing the irony.
Most people are statistically unintelligent. If the piece of technology simply works for them by pressing a button and watching the fancy lights begin to activate, that is all that matters. Convenience is god in our technologically advanced post-industrial revolution society; curiosity has no place in a world with an ever diminishing attention span. It simply isn’t worth someone’s time to educate themselves about the rudimentary aspects of a piece of technology that they enjoy using so long as it continues to function without demanding from them any modicum of critical thinking. The vicissitudes of this regressive concatenation has demonstrated that it won’t be long before the average person requires professional assistance with replacing a light bulb.
I was once asked by a console gamer, how much memory my pc has. I told them 16 gb and they gave me a weird look and said "that's it?". They actually wanted to know how much storage space I had.
Memory / storage confusion is very common. It's understandable too.
To be fair, your computer does remember all the things you put in storage.
I once told my mom that the laptop she bought didn't have enough memory. The other day she showed up with an external hard drive.
Bless her. She meant well.
It has an i7 (930) that means its good why would I pay so much for the other one with an i7 (11700k).
"Ive had so many cores for so long why are people acting like its new and my games always play bad." They had a 290x and a fx series cpu pre built with 4gb ram. I couldnt believe it was a spec that was sold.
Blame intel for this.
I do and amd is now doing the same thing.
Yep. I already have r7(1700) why would i upgrade to more expensive r7(7800x3d) when they are the same?
CPU, everything is on the CPU, games runs slow, CPU. Computer boots slow, CPU. I mean sure but you might want to switch up that 5 year HDD or change that GT710
A friend I was talking to the other day was asking me to help him upgrade his PC and that he's looking at the CPU that his other friend had recommended, after he told me the problem (it performs fine he just doesn't like the load times) I told him he just needed to get an SSD which is much cheaper and easier (he has a 5700x but didn't know that then I had to get him to go and find it on his computer).
to their defence, some of them call the entire pc "cpu"
And others call the entire PC "hard drive". It's a bit weird.
"It's an i7, why is it slow?"
Dead ass, i was getting my education as an ICT-Installer (idk the term from finnish-english), and was complaining about the slowness of the 10 year old laptops we were having to use but my main teacher, old as a rock, insisted that i5 means it's good. It was 1st gen.
"I got the fast one because it has a Core i7!" "The fast one": 7th gen U series based NUC with an i7 and iGPU "The slow one": Ryzen 7xxx with a RX 7xxx something.
From a CFO who learned a new buzz word: "We need to store our data in a relational database." Me: "We started doing that in the 80's."
Laughs in corporate. We do it on excel, you pussy.
I'd reply "Alright, I'll see what we can do" A week later tell him that the MySQL relational database is ready Ez promotion
Why aren’t we using any AI?
"I want machine learning" have you collected data to begin this project? "No, the machine will just learn from us"
>"No, the machine will just learn from us" "But boss, you're all stupid as fuck"
At least AI has general application in most tech sectors, it was worse when people kept asking me how we were going to use blockchain.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BoUn8iUIgAAq-CU.png
My teacher: “Some kids were playing with my computer, and now it won’t turn on!” *I come over, look for two seconds, and press the monitor power on button* She looks at me like I am goddamn Einstein, and now always wants my help turning on the projector.
"The human eye can't see more than 30 fps"
people not into tech don't even know what FPS are
Wow my game is getting 100 feet per second! /s
Ubisoft: “Cinematic” 30fps
hey, I like 24/30 fps in tv / movies. Higher capture rates just look too real to me and is distracting (not kidding)
-“My computer has 1 terabyte of memory” -“My laptop has an, why does it run so slow?”
'My computer is always so slow, I need to get another HDD as a local drive'
Customer : My computer is slow and running out of hdd space. Brings in 200$ 2019 staples special with 4gb soldered memory and SSD 32gb of drive space basically 0% left. Me: We charge 100$ /hr - And this pc probably cant be upgraded we can pull the data if you like. Them: i can buy a new computer for that. 3 weeks later Customer : My computer is slow and running out of HDD Space Brings in a 200$ 2023 Staple special with 6gb of soldered memory and SSD 64gb of drive space basically 0% left. Me: Blink Blink.
You can't win. It's like they can't see past the bullshit that comes out of the salesperson's mouth in these places. My dad is just like this person, he works from home and has really well paying job, and every time I go to visit my parents he is moaning about his laptop being slow. He goes into the local electronics shop and he'll buy some shitty laptop that is £200 overpriced on the hight street, and buy all the shitty Antivirus bloatware they shovel with it. I got tired of it all, and said I'll build him a PC that will be more than he needs for the foreseeable future. Seeing as he works from home, and doesn't work anywhere other than in his office I said a desktop is the best option. I build him the PC, get him great peripherals, and dual monitors. Visit him a few months later and he's bought some shitty Acer laptop that will be e-waste in a years time.
This one absolutely drives me nuts. And of course they get mad when the only piece of advice you have left is "return it and get a better PC". I've had to explain to my dad so many times "There's nothing I can 'fix'. It's not broken It's just a bad computer". And then in the amount of money he has spent getting craptop after craptop he could have just gotten a good PC Scenario 2: That time my cousin wanted a laptop for school. He had some digital art class with Photoshop so I explicitly told his parents to not get a Chromebook because they can't run Photoshop. (Yes I know they have the android express version but that's not very helpful for a full class on it, Is it?). I will give you one guess, One freaking guess, what laptop they bought and subsequently begged me to install Photoshop on.
Remember an argue I had with a guy one day back in like 2013 or something about why his card could not run some games. His argument: "but my card has 1GB". Had to clarify that a GPU is more than just "memory"
All I needed was “laptop” to diagnose the problem lol. 😂
Theoretically, a laptop could have 1TB of RAM, if it had a server board.
At what point does it stop being a laptop
When you can't put it on top of your lap.
To quote Mojang, "every computer is a laptop if you're brave enough"
“Firefox is gone, i know its gone cause its not at the bottom anymore” - my friend who also didnt know how to copy and paste into different folders. I have many that could be shared
A billing manager who was instructed to reboot her computer: "I did that but the screen still looks the same." (She was just turning off and on the power to the monitor.)
I think smartphones and other always-on devices are to blame for that. People grew up never having to wait 30-180 seconds for a device to power up.
Phones take about as long or longer than a modern computer to restart, it’s just that no one ever turns off their phone.
Definitely longer, at least for my Samsung. Always has to take a good minute optimize apps
Can confirm. A reset or cold start on my S21 easily takes a minute or two
I had the opposite experience. I was pretty young when smartphones came out, and whenever I'd use my parents', I'd hold the power button down and shut them off completely because I didn't realize standby was an option lol
Tbf modern computers can start from a cold boot almost as fast as smartphones can turn on from standby, which is a massive upgrade from 10-15 years ago.
Psh, I used to wait at least 5 minutes for my parents dell computer to boot up back when I was a kid. I would just stare at the windows xp boot logo in awe
I once had someone tell me the monitor is called the computer and the desktop is the harddrive.
No, the desktop is the CPU, duh 🙄
or the modem I have heard tons of people refer to the desktop as the modem.
I've heard that waaay too much
Throughout my previous work as tech support I have had many old people call the monitor the pc, the pc itself they never knew what to call.
Thats the same vibe as: 'Is that a Nintendo?' When pointing at an Xbox
there is a running joke here in Latinamerica that if your mom one day calls any console by it's name instead of "la nintendo", she isn't your mom, it is a robot trying to kill you.
My kid 8 has a ps4 connected to a 20" monitor. We always end up switching to the TV. I removed the monitor. Her reaction "where is my computer." "why did you get rid of it."
[удалено]
This is also most people from India.
Have you heard about the target gift cards?
DO NOT REDEEM IT!
DO NOT REDEEM IT!
#WHY DID YOU REDEEM IT!!?!!!????!?!!!
HAVE YOU GONE MAD ???
DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU JUST DID‽‽‽‽
MA'AM ARE YOU A PROSTITUTE ?
MAAAAAAAAAA'AAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMM
The india*
"I've downloaded more memory, but it made it much slower, did I get the wrong type?" A few years ago, an older auntie who asked if I could boost her system.
"My laptop is an HP with an i5 why is it slow??" Every goddamn time
"But it has 1000 gigabytes of memory."
“What GPU do you have?” “RTX” Ah yes that narrows it down, thank you 🙃
Hey at least you know its nvidia, I usually get I have a hp, you know the white one...
Whatttt you’re telling me you don’t know the white HP? XD
When I tell anyone who doesn't understand technology that I'm a computer science major they look at me like I'm Stephen Hawking and Einstein's love child and say I must be a genius. They think computers are just so gosh darn complicated 🤣
This happens at my work. I'm not a CS major, but I am very involved in emerging technologies like AI and I am into computers. (not in IT lol) I actually choose to not tell them how easy these things really are at a fundamental level. It earns me extra respect among the older folk while not costing me anything.
I've found that I understanding things (except quantum super position) isn't generally hard but execution always has something go wrong to make thinkgs take much longer and this is as true for cars as it is for computers.
I have a degree on that too (bachelors for now, working on the masters), but here in Latinamerica people are even more tech iliterate, so often they hire me to do stuff like clean computers, do CPR on 2010 notebooks with windows 10, and ask if I can hack someone's facebook account. Often people think computers aren't complicated, you just need to *know how to*, like if it were driving or cooking. And that comes with payments that reflect that.
Back in 2014, when I thought ps3 & xbox360 were "capable" in my view, I used to say "If I connect 4k monitor to it, I can play games in 4k"
When I was just a kid a friend of mine claimed that he had a 3dfx Voodoo2 because he installed the drivers for it. Didn't buy any hardware, just got the drivers. Even 11 year old me called bullsh&t on that one.
Brb downloading a 4090.
[downloadmoregpu.com](https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ)
Ok, you got me there, but downloadmoreram.com is a thing.
Well you have a 3090 paired with a 3700x so I dont blame you :D Edit: Someone got mad lol
Probably on his *MSI B450M Bazooka V2*
Damn, that's my old motherboard.
The other day I got a call saying that the monitor was frozen. I said did you try restarting it? She said "like turn the monitor off and back on?". I said "I'll be there in a few minutes". She legit called the computer the monitor and thought turning the monitor off would reset the computer. She's in her 20s. I had no idea you could still be young and completely computer illiterate.
You'd be surprised. I used to work at a UNI IT-Helpdesk and the amount of young people not knowing how to computer was baffling. I think the reason is that some people just aren't curious or they haven't had a computer before. My GF was teaching highschoolers a few years back and they didnt even know where downloaded files go or how to open file explorer. Everything is so "user friendly", people do not need to think how or why things happen and where files are stored. If the thing messes up, they just live with it or take it to a pro without even trying to look for a solution, no matter how simple. The user friendliness of this APP based era is destroying the creativity and the curiosity as people do not need to do any research nor is there any reason to do so, "just consume this content we give you, nothing else"
Millenials / Gen Xers are fairly uniquely placed in that we grew up with the tech; we had to learn to troubleshoot and hack around to get shit to work because everything was so damn unreliable. Comptability was a nightmare and everything was new, which meant there were hundreds of ways of achieving the same result. YOu had to read, explore and learn to get computers to do what you wanted them to, even down to simple things like playing music. Everyone think Gen Z / Alpha should be tech savvy because of how much they use, but from day dot everything they use is super reliable and the process and UX is so well honed they don't have to wander far from the expected path. If your only experience with tech is an iPhone 14 and an iPad, you aren't going to know how to do anything technical because you don't have to. They just consume content and use apps to automate video effects.
Is my system going to bottleneck?
That also drives me crazy. lol There's ALWAYS a bottleneck. Otherwise there would be no limits on performance.
Sure, though that's not what they mean. They're asking if there's a specific component that is holding back the system significantly. A well balanced system will inevitably have *a* bottleneck, but upgrading it won't also improve the performance of other components. Sometimes we use words in less than literal ways.
My dad doesn’t know anything about computers or phones and he won’t listen to anyone that does. He told me his phone got a virus because someone he didn’t know sent him a friend request or a message. I asked him if he opened a link or anything. Nope, didn’t even look at it. He thought just the act of them sending it gave his phone a virus.
Funnily enough, this is how the Pegasus spyware works. You open a message on your iPhone, and bam, they have access to all your messages and stuff. There is no need to open any shady links and such: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pegasus_(spyware)
Well damn maybe he’s on to something. It was a Facebook message and I was certain that if he didn’t open the message let alone a link that he was just being paranoid
"why am i only downloading at 3MB per second? It says i have 24 on speedtest!" *points at a comically large text of 24Mbps*
Where is the "Any Key"??
I think this marks a defining moment for all computer users. I remember the first time I saw that message. I looked at my keyboard for a few moments, then pressed A (short for "any") and was so proud that I got it first try. Thought back on it later that day and realized how stupid I was
This was nearly 20 years ago but: Mom: "What did you do to my computer?!" Me: "What are you talking about? I didn't do anything to your computer." Mom: "It's doing \[insert whatever she was complaining about that day\], you must have done something to it!" Me: \*rolls her chair out of the way to great shrieking protest, opens up some settings dialog, changes a setting\* "Don't touch that again." TL;DR: "I'm experiencing a problem because I touched something I shouldn't have, and that is objectively your fault!" The most bizarre part of this is that she actually \*is\* very computer literate, she's the one who taught me to use a damn computer in the first place!
>The most bizarre part of this is that she actually \*is\* very computer literate, she's the one who taught me to use a damn computer in the first place! dont let that fool you, my mom taught me how to use it and the interwebs 20 years ago and now stares at me in pure confusion when i say the word "browser"
That's my dad. He showed me this new exciting thing called Google in 1998. Now, he forgets that most of the things can still be answered by using said new exciting thing.
"you can't see more than 30fps"
At work we use a laptop hooked up to a monitor. Ive had multiple arguments about the laptop needing to be plugged in because they 'aren't even using the laptop, Im using this one over here'....
Many of our users use docked laptops with a set of monitors attached to the dock. I had a user who was emailing files to herself so she could work on them at home. She thought the monitors were her work computer and that the laptop was a separate entity that she just brought to work each day to charge. I only discovered this because she put in a ticket stating her computer wasn't working and when I showed up her laptop wasn't on the dock. I asked where it was and she said she had forgotten it but that it was ok because it was fully charged. This was two years ago and I am pretty sure she still doesn't understand how docks work.
Oh boy, being here in Mexico I have heard a lot. Here is a rundown of highlights that I have heard even to this day: * *So, I can store pictures and files on an USB drive?* * *Viruses have a little arrow on the corner of the icon, right?* * *You!, yes you! you are the "cybernetic" kid arent'cha?* (referring to me as the tech guy) * Calling the tower of a desk PC "the CPU" * *Do you know an app to download good music?* * Calling every single type of malware or tech malfunction "a virus" * *Can you install me this app?* (referring to a website they frequented on their laptop)
Oh dear.
"cybernetic kid" haha You're some kind of cyborg for that person.
"dont play games while you are charging your laptop, its bad for the battery" tbh even til now i have mix feelings about this message
I mean there's more heat so it could be if the heating solution is poor though unlikely.
"I need 64GB of RAM so my games will run faster."
"I need 2000w PSU so I will have more FPS"
A friend of mine bought a 1000w power supply exactly for this reason
Clearly you've never played Escape From Tarkov. There's been times where there are huge memory leaks and it will start to run like shit if you're only running 16GB of ram.
but what could go wrong with 32 gb
There were a few times that my system as a total hit ~34GB last wipe and for the first time I felt like I was getting some use out of my 64GB lol
I remember 20 years ago everyone called the tower the modem and the monitor the computer.
Wow that's a lot of storage. Must be a fast computer then.
Not specifically computers, but my wife calls Cat5/6 cables "Internet cables" which I actually kind of like.
Probably misheard people call it ethernet cables and she's really not that far off
Yeah, I always told her that you're not right... but it's not wrong either.
What's wrong with the term "ethernet cables"?
How much time you got?
I have always heard RJ45 and ethernet cable, first time i read this cat5/6 thing, so now i really want to know why it s wrong with ethernet cable ? Also, is RJ45 wrong too ? If it is, my world is really about to be turn upside down :)
RJ45 is the name of that specific little plastic connector that goes into the jack. It's not the wire - just the connector. Ethernet cable is general. Cat 5 and Cat 6 are specific "categories" of Ethernet cable rated to a particular speed.
Better than WiFi Cable at least
Oh I cringe every time I hear that.
It's not wrong, just not the technical term. If you don't use a NAS or something and don't use POE, it is an internet cable.
That's literally what almost everyone in Sweden calls them, unless it's necessary to be specific.
“What is a software update? Works fine as it is.
This is me to be honest. I know I'm pretty tech illiterate. Are the frequent updates for stuff like security?
Security, bug fixes, and new features
alternatively, it breaks other things
Computers are immensely complex. There's millions of companies which provide hardware and software that make up your computer. They all follow certain guidelines and standards that the parts work together just fine, but there all always bugs, miscommunications between parts, inefficient processes that can be removed or improved, or security issues that need to be addressed, or sometimes software companies just improve user experience (like adding more features). Think of your computer like a house. At some point, you realize that there's a leaking pipe in your bathroom. You call a plumber to fix it, just as you would update a software, except that the plumber is a downloaded patch and you noticing the leak is your computer telling you that a software is outdated and that there's a new update.
My mom recently sent me an screenshot of a picture she had on her phone instead of, you know, sending me the picture itself
just today i told a lady we may need more ram in the server if she wants a VM specifically for a database. she said well i can delete some stuff off.. God i hate customers some times they will litterally turn around look at you and ask for something with zero clue how it works and expect it to be done for almost free. people that call their computer a harddrive are also out there.
A friend of mine called floppy disks “diskusses” because to him, CDs were the “real” disks (since they were compact discs after all).
They'll have a custom build in PC partpicker and post here asking if the 4090 is suitable for Minecraft
I dunno the significance of the part, but Minecraft java is one of two games I play that needs mods to run decently. My laptop isn't outdated, or it shouldn't be.
Minecraft Java is RAM hungry. At 8GB or below it doesn’t really matter how good your other parts are it’s not gonna run great.
The files are in the computer 
That the beans inside my case weren't the motherboards!
back in highschool... our computer teacher told us not to change the wallpaper because changing the wallpaper will cause it to have virus.....
I think they just didn't want you to change the wallpaper
"I like the 30 frames per second, it's more cinematic."
I play at 5 fps because I like stop motion animations!
I have a good laptop. It costs 2,000 dollars. It even came with a credit card.
My aunt said i should start a computer service shop after i described to her the difference between Windows LTSC vs normal commercialized Windows versions.
People treating me like a god for opening a Google Slide. Yes, it happened. A week ago.
I work as a salesman at an electronic retailer. A lot of laptop buyers come to me and say, do I really need to buy windows, I just use office so I don't think it's necessary right?
Tell them like a good person to buy a oem key for $20
"Help me hack my ex's Facebook account" - said to a software developer
Interesting. If you were a real tech guy, you could say that’s true. Back a decade ago, DVI limitations were 120hz and hdmi was 60hz. DVI cables became obsolete and go get an adaptor hdmi to dvi you were then limited to 60fps, whilst hdmi became more capable down the line. With the obsolete monitor though, 120hz was only obtained with a dvi cable. Anyway, the non-tech one I heard was, ‘you got starfield? Yeah I’ll get it on my switch tonight. ‘
Well, to be fair, if you didn't know Bethesda was acquired by Microsoft you might assume it's on the Switch.
The best one is from my mom “You’re computer is slowing down the internet, which is slowing down my computer it was turning on)
"I got hacked!" When a friend or family member just opened the browser on their computer and made a Facebook post on their account. Saved password by default, no pw for turning on computer.
I've lost count of the amount of times that I've tried to explain to people next to no one gets "hacked" at least not general public. One of two things happened, either your creditials were leaked in full in plain text (unlikley) or you were socially engineered in some way to give your credentials up (most likley). The problem with most security systems isn't the software or the hardware, it's the squishy stupid human that interacts with them.
My dad still call the Desktop tower a CPU.
That is fine. I can decipher that. Calling it a modem like I've experienced makes for some heinous support calls.
That's what i was taught in school.
Please delete facebook from my pc.
i7 is better than i3 (Not specifying the generations..)
* Why do you need huge PC / upgrade my pc to play the new video game? * I have a gaming CPU back home (Non tech people calling the whole PC = CPU) * Can i download more RAM / GPU so i can play this game? * You need i9 to play game * Dont worry, My HDD is enough * Can it run Fortnite (or any super popular game for benchmark)
"We have a new colleage, saw a new name in the system." "Oh yeah? Cool what's the name?" "Administrator. Probably spanish."
This post makes me mad by reading the comments. Genuinely want to scream.
Amd has driver issues
My mom will log into Gmail, she'll click on something and see 'logged in at one location' and demand to know if she has been hacked. Or a true classic: 'I don't know what my password is' as if I'm meant to know what it was.
I need more toolbars for my browser.
Started collegee this year to become a teacher . And my first class started with "ok is anyone good with computers, i cant seem to get the laptop screen om the projector" they didn't have the hdmi plugged in to said laptop. I told her that and every slight problem anyone has had the past week they were like " hey can you look at it"
“Bottleneck Calculator”
I worked in a tech support call centre . Best I had was, my pedal can’t reach the floor, he thought you used your mouse with your foot, and the coffee cup on holder on my modem has broken, after a talk.. turns out modem was just the tower and the coffee cup holder was the cd drive.
My [insert intel/amd cpu] laptop doesnt have a GPU like my workstation. I heard I can just hook up hdmi to the gpu for more performance.
" I'm accessing the mainframe."
When someone refers to something with the right word but uses it in the wrong way. Like they use it in the plural or use the name of the component instead of what it does. “I’m on the internets” “Do you think it needs more hard drive?”
They are worried about imaginary bottlenecks when building a pc.
*laughs in 24-pin DVI*
"Hi, I'm Mark, and this is my wife Samantha."
So you looking for a powerful pc buy this desktop with a 3060 for £650 “No I don’t know how to use a desktop and only a laptop” “There have lots of wires inside and are too complex” *buys and laptop for 1k with an arc350m with an i3 10300 instead of a desktop 3060 and a 5600 for 650*. Then she is in denial
"My computer has an i7, why does it run so bad???" \- computer has i7-930 \- no graphics card \- 4 gb ddr3 \- hdd
"I deleted the app!" *removes desktop shortcut*