Friday, September 10, 2010

User Error

One of the nightmares of being a desktop support dweeb is that 95% of all problems are human error. That means, the longer you do it, the more you begin to hate humanity. Case in point: I get a frantic message from a girl here yesterday saying the printer next to her cubicle won't print anything. When I go to her desk, she's not there. I do some test prints from her computer, no problem. This morning, she asks me if I fixed it. I said the printer was working fine. I ask, "Did you try to print something before you called me yesterday?" Her answer: "Um, well, no." Just fucking shoot me. (Or at least bake me something tasty to make up for it....)

The fun isn't relegated only to PC users. Mac users are just as much fun. A few weeks ago, I have one of our newbies come up to me and says, "There is something MAJOR wrong with my computer and I NEED you to fix it." OK, what's the problem? "Yesterday, I worked all day on two different files. But now, when I open them, they have the same artwork! My computer lost all the changes I made to the one file! You have to get it back!" Sweet little girl, that's what we call 'User Error.' Computers cannot go and make wholesale changes to your files and just randomly replace your artwork. You saved both files with the same artwork yourself because you weren't paying attention. Your Mac didn't decide to screw you and do it on its own. There's nothing wrong with your computer at all. Looks like you will have to re-do your work.... Ugh....