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You had to hold it up to a candle. (startrek.website)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/microblogmemes@lemmy.world
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[–] 6 points 2 years ago (9 children)

Almost every finished product I've seen has a generic error message like that which makes it extremely frustrating when you're technical and actually want to attempt to fix the problem. I had the same issue with a WiFi connected Canon printer. As a dev myself, I know how difficult it can be to write a useful error message for every edge case, but it's not that difficult to be a bit helpful lol

Regarding users hatred of error messages: when I worked in my University's computer lab about 15 years ago a student complained that she couldn't download a file. I went with her to see what the issue was and had her show me what she was doing. She'd attempt to download the file, quickly dismiss a pop-up, and then angrily say "see?! It's not working!!". I told her to do it again, but not dismiss the pop-up so quickly so I could see what it said. Of course, it was asking for permission to save the file to the HDD and she kept clicking "no" 🤦‍♂️

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (8 children)

    I told her to do it again, but not dismiss the pop-up so quickly so I could see what it said.

    I shit you not, I've had a user do worse.

    I've done the same exact scenario as you with one difference. I told her the same thing you did. And then. She closed the message again. While I was pointing at it, and asking her to read it out loud.

    I.

    Pointed. At the screen. And said read this out loud.

    She moved her mouse to my finger.

    And closed the message.

    I.

    Can't.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (5 children)

    Hahaha for some people it's just a habit I guess.

    Or for some, like my mom, it's learned helplessness. She always misplaces her phone and keys (not because of dementia or something like that, just lack of attention) so my brother bought her one the Bluetooth tracking tags (air tags, but for Android). Since I work in tech, I'm always the one to set everything up. She said "Set it up for me, I don't wanna know how to use it..." as if it required zero user input after I had set it up 🤦‍♂️ I just looked at her and said "... if you lose you keys and need to track them down, how do you expect to find them?!”

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    She said "Set it up for me, I don't wanna know how to use it..."

    The only proper answer to this is Then I won't do it. We're done. Don't ask me again.

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  • [–] 0 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    She has helped me out with stuff (school wise, life wise, financially, etc...) more times than I can count so I seem and feel like an ungrateful asshole if I just flat out say that.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (2 children)

    If you feel you owe her, don't complain.

    If you need the feel to complain, do something about it.

    You can't have it both ways.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

    In that case I think the only thing to do is something like this.

    I asked you to read the message out loud to me.

    Instead of following my instructions, you closed the message.

    If you want me to help you with this issue, I'll need that you explain to me why you did that instead of following my instructions. I won't move forward until you do. I'll wait.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago

    Oh I did. Almost verbatim. Basically the excuse was they became flustered and misunderstood. Which is understandable, but still, damn... How do you pretend to be that helpless and earn a degree that qualifies you to save lives? Basic problem solving involves at least the attempt at a solution. Mindlessly repeating the task that is failing without changing any variables is bad scientific method, which we learned in like 6th grade.

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