i guess some people are too young to remember wired mouses
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I did had one support call, a long time ago, where I told the guy to use the mouse and click on the start button. Then I heard the sound of something tapping on glass.
"Sir, please keep the mouse on the table and then move it. You'll notice the arrow moving too. Move the arrow to ..."
Yeah, that was still when everybody had CRT screens. That should give you an indication how long ago it was.
I did a support call in the 90's where "clicking the left mouse button" was stumping her. After trying a few variations of instructions, I decided to take a step back and better assess the situation.
Me - Ma'am, are you left or right handed?
Her: right
Me: Lift your right hand, and look at the mouse. It should be a palm sized white plastic device with two buttons, one on the left and one on the right where your fingers rest. There should also be a small cable that extends from the far side and plugs into your computer. The underside of it has a little grey ball in the middle. Do you see it?
Her: You mean the doohickey on the floor?
Me: Pardon me?!? Well, it should be on your desk, not the floor. Why would it be down there?
Her: You mean the foot pedal?
Me: *light bulb clicks on. Are you really familiar with sewing machines?
Her: yes, but this doesn't work anything like that.
Me: ok. We have found the problem! This is great. First step is to take the foot pedal off the floor and place it on the desk, under your right hand when you are sitting comfortably.
From there everything went smooth as silk.
I once had a support call where I told the customer to click the Start button and they didn't know what it was. I clarified by saying that it was the button in the corner of the screen. They did it and then said that their entire screen turned black.
Apparently they'd pushed the power button on their monitor.
When I was young, older people thought the monitor was the computer and had no idea there was a chassi under the desk connected to it. :)
When I was young people thought the keyboard was the computer. And they were right.
Enter the imac.
Have you ever seen the original Mac?
To the guy a few weeks ago that said I wasn't being fair to users not reading error messages and comparing it to a doctor reading your charts. Read this fucking thread.
A ton of power users who never worked in service desk don't understand how incompetent the average user is. It is quite something.
I'm laughing my ass off reading this threat because I can imagine every single one happening.
It's been a while since I used a mac but doesn't it literally say 'Finder' at the top of the screen when you open that?
You think all long time apple users know that the application name is up there, or that there is even a menu for the app at the top of the screen? No, sometimes telling people to click on the apple in the top left, so that they can go to restart, blows people's minds.
I honestly still find it such a weird UX decision to decouple the menu from the application window. Especially when you have multiple windows open on a large screen, the menu is on the opposite corner of the screen. Makes no sense
it's a really interesting decision because while it makes the menu positioning consistent, it also creates a hard link between the active window and the desktop, which means that things like "hover to focus" and "click button in background window" fundamentally cannot work.
If it weren't for rating you poorly, that'd be incredible performance art.
Oh, the Master Control Program?
I'm guessing that the user did eventually figure out it's labelled as "finder" and got pissy at you for being all pedantic and not just calling it what they call it because really, is the correct name so important?
(Or is your standard-issue "read customers' thoughts to know what exactly they mean" device broken? Really, how can you call yourself support without crucial equipment to spare customers from having to be clear?)
I can hear this image.
For everyone who hasn't experienced the 90s https://youtu.be/6WpMlwVwydo?is=Cjw-SD_OOXoA9LmI
And .. of course.. there plenty techno remixes out there. Have fun.
Hamsters do have tails though. /UmAckchually
You know what doesn't have a tail? A guinea pig.
i had a colleague at one of the jobs who was very conspiratorial regarding all things bluetooth and he wouldn't talk to me or anyone else unless we turn it off.
Strange word we live in where he is more right than wrong
Computer mice is an area where females have completely displaced males.
I've not seen a male mouse at work in a long time.

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