You can also see an inspection mirror next to my coffee mug -- it's like a dental mirror on a telescoping rod. It comes in handy for looking behind stuff, like when I'm trying to plug something in.
(Note that the photo is framed to show as little of the mess on my desk as possible.)
The IT guys also had to replace the hub I inherited that sits under my desk -- it was apparently toasted after 10 years of existence, which is 5 years past its expected service life.
Speaking of IT, here's a somewhat amusing post that was on the Digg.com main page today: "Stupid user tricks: Eleven IT horror stories."
When it comes to computer stuff, we are all at some point or another "stupid users." (Though I hope none of us would try to dry out a Coke-drenched laptop with a heat gun -- you know, what they use to strip paint with. Result? Melted laptop.)
Like I said, I have a few more days ahead of me, transferring files, reinstalling programs, and tweaking settings to get things just the way I like (that is, because it's the way I'm used to doing things).
Anyway, this reminds me of a blog post I never finished from back in January, which is sort of related, so I will dust it off: It starts with a TUAW blog entry, "Common Mistakes Made by New Mac Users", and was followed by "Top 30 Mistakes Made by New Mac Users."
The stories from commenters are the more interesting part; many are of the "oh, look what the dumb user did here"-type; some are the usual PC vs. Mac vs. Linux flamewar material.
More eye-opening are the behaviors that are "dumb", not because of any inherent stupidity on the user's part, but just because they are a result of inertia -- people get so used to doing stuff in a certain way, that even when they make a change and they no longer have to do something, they keep trying to do it (for example, if you switch from PC to Mac, you don't have to defragment your hard drive any more -- the Mac OS X file system takes care of this as you go along. This does not stop people from trying, driving them crazy in the process.)
A more tangible analogy: Say you're a life-long motorcycle rider, and that after you switch to driving a car, you keep trying to put the kickstand down when you park. Kind of like that. It's not really "dumbness" -- it's more of a lack of adaptability.
Of course, if enough people are making the same mistake, it's quite possible that the designers did something wrong (that is, have a design flaw), not the users.
Now, I'm pretty much cross-platform when it comes to Mac vs. PC, but here's an example where I still get tripped up: When I'm using the Firefox Web browser, I usually hit Control-H when I want to bring up the browser's History of previously visited links.
On the Mac, Command-H (Command is pretty much the functional equivalent of Control on the Mac), means "hide the current application window." The keyboard combo I should be using on the Mac is Shift-Command-H.
I usually manage to do this several times a day -- it irritates me.
Anyway, just an excuse to dust off an unused post. Also, here's a photo of the Mac that sits under my desk:
8 comments:
we trired to clean my coke soaked keyboard once by popping off the keys and using a damp paper towel, much easier to run to the store and buy a new keyboard!!! All efforts were futile! Ended up buying a new keyboard anyway,<note to self keep the pop away from keyboard>, better yet better yet use an IV and feed the coke(pop) directly into the bloodstream! LOL
~Julie
I once saw this computer expert guy take a keyboard that had been soaked by some kind of soda..he then proceeded to run it under cool water to rinse all the keys out? Of course this was unplugged then he left it on it's side to drain and dry.. and don't you know it then worked perfectly again? I was like.. are you sure you can do that??? It was very odd.. to see.. but.. anyways... maybe I wanted to see your messy desk.. the new laptop you have is nice..
Oh and one last thing.. what's the deal with my counter? It keeps on getting wiped out .. hits wise and starting all over again...I may just take it off .. it's rather useless to have a counter that doesn't even work right.. ya know? ;)
Later .. taterrrrr..
Re: Hit Counters -- best recommendation I have at this point is to go with a free third-party HTML hit counter -- we're working on ways to make it easier to integrate third-party hit counters in Journals, I will do a blog entry about it at a later time. Thanks -- Joe
RE: 3rd Party Hit Counters
>> best recommendation I have at this point is to go with a free third-party HTML >> hit counter -- we're working on ways to make it easier to integrate third-party >>hit counters in Journals, I will do a blog entry about it at a later time. Thanks -->> Joe
While you look into that, anyway to see about getting Google analytics involved. That would be abolsutely awesome for us to use with AOL Journals. :cough: being that Google owns 5% of AOL :cough:
That's a great idea with the dentist mirror! Love the new laptop, Joe...it's nice to see another AOL-er using Firefox. That's my browser of choice, I use it almost all the time, except for when I'm checking email or writing in my journal, then I use the AOL software's built-in browser. :-)
~ Susan
http://journals.aol.com/njmom72/TheStrawberryPatch
I have a friend who refuses to update from 5.0
Thanks for your help!
Nice pooter!
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