Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes
Edsger W. Dijkstra
this post was submitted on 04 Dec 2024
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And when your radio is broken, you don't ask a composer
Pro tip: whenever a relative asks you to fix their computer, wipe everything and set up Linux for them. That'll teach em.
“You use Arch, now, btw”
"Make sure to write that down, because you're legally required to bring it up at every possible opportunity."
I just tell them that I only deal with Linux and that is usually enough to dissuade.
,,oh how glad, my ubuntu is broken since update"
Honestly no problem, if they're tech literate enough to have gotten that far it'll probably be okay
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Legit haven't touched windows in 5 years, I don't know my way around it
I haven't used Windows personally in about 15 years and professionally in about 10. I'm pretty useless on anything newer than XP. I even got my wife to switch over to a Mac Mini because at least that has a Unix-like OS and she can still do her audio work on it (in fact, better than a Windows system because their patch QA is light-years ahead of the MS "fuck it, it'll break some systems but we'll get that next patch Tuesday" approach).
That's not to say that I like Apple. I just dislike their OS less than Windows.
You have experienced the pinnacle of Windows (we could probably also add Windows 7 to this). Do yourself a favor and never touch a Windows 10 and especially Windows 11 machine. It’s unimaginable how Microsoft managed to break everything that was working and how clever they are in terms of marketing to sell you stuff you don’t need.
They made me finally switch to Linux because my paid 365 subscription offered me to try the new outlook because Windows Mail was to be discontinued in future. I activated the test and the fun began: Only one of seven accounts was imported into outlook. Of course it was the only Microsoft account (Outlook). All other Accounts were ignored. I thought „Ok migration didn’t work, I’ll do it later manually“ I had a new email. I clicked on it. Edge opened although Firefox was my standard browser. It took me a couple of seconds to realize that I was clickbaited into opening an advertisement by one of the biggest companies on this planet.
This made me immediately stop my work and install Linux Mint. I’m not going back any time soon.
For job related reasons I have to use a lot of VMs. Unfortunately most of them are Windows 10. I created a naked installation years ago and basically use this as the base for individual development VMs. One of these annoyed me for days to make an update. All I could click was „remind me in one hour“ or update immediately. So I chose the one hour a lot of times. I finally let it update. Now my (Windows default!) task bar is transparent and also the whole windows menu. A colleague using the same VM with the latest updates (without changes to installed software) has no issues.
Did that for my sister but nowadays I just use the excuse: "Sorry I can't help you, I don't use Windows anymore".
The real problem is when a relative know that I'm computer guy and ask me to fix the TV/air conditioner or like my father once did: setup an antenna
Did that, kind of. The system's been running flawlessly for like a decade now. I'm not sure if they even understand the difference.
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Computer science has absolutely nothing to do with support, they are totally different fields with totally different skill sets.
Most programmers I've known would be garbage at support and most support staff might be able to do some scripting but sure as hell aren't coders.
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My answer is usually “I don’t use computers the same way you do, so I probably won’t know what you’re talking about.”
People need to understand the difference between computer science, information technology, software engineering and Tech Support
and "actually needing Microsoft support but coming to you cause Microsoft doesn't give a shit about private end users"
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My new excuse is, "I only know linux, I don't know anything about windows."
Stare at their computer blankly
"Wait, they got rid of the green hill????"
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"Right, so you see, when a conductor is passed through a magnetic field, an electromotive force is produced, and this force can perform work, which can in turn be used to represent probabilistic information..."
mashes the A button to skip dialog
HAHAAA YOU FOOL YOU HAVE ACTIVATED MY INFODUMP I AM AN UNSKIPPABLE CUTSCENE
understanding how a cpu works and how to write efficient programs is the easy part.
understanding why windows does [anything] is the hard part.
Yeah, just read that their newest server OS puts a recovery partition to the right of the primary partition by default.
Which is completely useless on a server, and prevents you from growing the partition when you run out of space.
At this point, they're basically saying "Office and AD guarantee our monopoly, so we can push out literal monkey shit, and tell admins to deal with it."
no uncle steve, that's commuter science, I know ALL ABOUT PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION
Relative: You know about computers, right?
Me: I'm not sure. Who knows about computers, really? In the words of W.S. McCulloch, "What is a number, that a man may know it, and a man, that he may know a number?" (if you'll pardon the gendered language) Now if you extend this to computation...
Relative: All right, STFU, I just wanted to know how to update my Amazon account...
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Especially this time of year when people are panicking for whatever reason, people are travelling, people are coming and going, people are buying laptops, devices and phones and the majority of them don't know how digital files or folders even work (or where they are in a digital system).
If you know anything about computers .... just pretend you don't know anything like everyone else. It will save you so much work and headaches this time of year.
And don't get soft either .... cute girl asking for help? NO ... old grandma has a new laptop? NO ... your dying relative has a new phone? NO! .... your two year old niece has a new tablet? NO! ... your drug dealer wants to lower your debt in exchange for fixing their PC? HELL NO!!!
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Alright I'm probably the outlier here but... I like helping people with their IT needs, and I've always found the problem solving and praise kinda nice. Maybe it's just a me thing tho
imo - you are not the outlier, you just haven't yet progressed to the mostly inevitable stage where people take advantage of your help, or their spyware ridden dumpster fire of a laptop breaks and they blame you because you "touched it last" - never mind that was 6 months ago and the only thing you did was change the screensaver timeout.
I like helping people, but not with what I do for my day job. Ask me to shovel your driveway or help you move or proofread your emails or anything but more of what I’ve already spent all day doing.
I used to work in IT, and both then when I was on my personal time, and now, I do not love helping people, but all it takes is someone else doing it poorly would annoy me enough I would end up helping someone
I actually like helping people a lot, too.
I don't think IT folks are naturally misanthropic or antisocial, but I personally got beat down so much by wanting to help and realizing they didn't care to listen, or weren't willing to learn anything. At all. Even though they came to me with the problem, it seemed they mostly just wanted me to fix it for them with zero understanding required, or to "be emotional at someone" or were lonely.
I also got so tired of being friendly and enthusiastically educational with advising my relatives or friends, only to then watch them completely disregard 100% of my advice they came to me for.
In the former job I'm still putting myself back together from, most of the public peoples who visited me would have been better served by visiting a psychologist / therapist first, but I was cheaper (free). :(
Often when it's something I do specialize in and I get all excited, that's when they choose to gloss over and I can tell they just want me to stop talking.
I hate having biases against people, but there very much are definitely "normies" who are threatened by the prospect of having to activate their neurons for the first time since they stumbled out of their highest level of education, and only learned to think when it was forced upon them.
Makes a guy feel pretty crappy. So I'm not as forthcoming with my skillset as I used to be in casual company. Lol
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What they say: "You know about computers, right?"
What they mean: "Can you fix this bug in Microsoft's software?"
Is that called "relatives with benefits"?
Step-IT, can you help me with my hard drive problem?
No, sorry, I don't know what kind of ass-backwards somersault your windows machine did this time. Your word doc is randomly missing every third paragraph? Too right mate.
1 in 10 CS majors fall for this common trap. The other makes this mistake at work.
The biggest career mistake I've ever made is opening an Excel macro and changing two characters to make it count a thing again.
I was then permanently labelled Cracks the Technomancer, master of all things technology. It fucking sucks.
Every year at Christmas my grandparent in law asks me to fix her iPhone. Something with iCloud account. The answer is always the same: Apple store.
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tge moment when you don't use windows for a few years now, yet your windows mates still ask you for help (i can pretty much always help em)
No matter the degree or seniority, the answer is always NO.
"Brother, may i have some IT-Service?"
"No."
i don't really mind, but i also don't do anything for free, either. at least feed and beer me.
"You know about computers, right? Can you he-"
"No."
What's a Cimproter?
Start talking about logic gates and flip flops and PLAs and FPGA, maybe even throw in few of the ASICs. If they don't shut up even after that then bring in the big guns and start talking about doping and PN junctions and How BJTs are better than FETs
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