And this is why I left IT. It was either gonna be an aneurysm or a bullet. The meme about tech workers leaving to become farmers is a legit path, my fellow IT workers.

I feel like that's more to do with age, than tech proficiency.

Definitely felt the meme when assisting my mother with tasks.

Definitely been the meme when a new UI redesign happened that completely bamboozled whatever priors I had to the point that I seemingly could not notice large buttons on a sidebar that I wasn't expecting.

!iiiiiiitttttttttttt@programming.dev

Too many letters. Ain't nobody going to count them. Wouldn't surprise me if that were a reason people didn't post 😄

How I hate switching between my phone/computer and my partner’s phone/computer. We don’t even have the same keyboard! Everything is in a different place! So frustrating

As someone who rebinds the Capslock key to be a special modifier (mostly for switching windows), it freaks people out sometimes when I'm typing on their machine and then suddenly stART WRITING LIKE THIS

And that's why remote desktops became a standard in the desktop support industry.

I have a shortcut to switch keyboard layouts, and I switch layouts to find “weird symbols” all the time… I am almost unable to type on any other computer

True. Should rename to i7t12

The thing I learned from help desk was a profiency at mastering the mute button.

we're... we're teaching ourselves habits that place us firmly into a friendless corner 😢

Why not just keep a small keyboard with you that remembers your short cuts and macros?

It should be plug and play on mobile devices too if friends want you to type something there

I don't narrate clicking and typing directions to people anymore. If you want my help, you stand up and I sit down.

I think it's neither age nor tech, it's how the human brain works. Same thing happens on a sailboat: "Pull on that red line. The one by your right hand. No, not the blue one, the red one that's directly in front of you, inches from your hand..."

I wince with pain every time I want to exit a Windows terminal and only end up typing a ^D character.

I have to regularly help my aging mother (and sometimes neighbors) with their phones. The damn thing of every manufacturer having their own Android version(s)/skin(s), and UI/UX designers changing the layout every new version of an app, makes me want to violently slap their collective faces with a large trout

and then they get angry and bitch about you being rude, unhelpful and how you "didn't know how to fix the problem".

Remote control is the way to solve this. Non-technical people are not good input devices

The issue with my dad is that he does thing with computer seldom enough that he forgets. He packs away his laptop and prefer i do the regular things for him. (i refuse this) He could do it more often or write it down. But he is lazy. So he needs directions every time.
When he intends to copy or move files, he still drags files, droping it randomly somewhere on the explorer window and making a mess. Then he loudly shouts in frustration, when his files are not where he expects. I keep telling him to not use drag and drop. I should disable that.

This is why modern media players try to find your media based on metadata, ignoring file structure.

I actually would love a portable version of that, as long as it unpacked to a 70% keyboard. Anything smaller would drive me crazy

Yes! Or Ctrl-R

You went past it, not you went passed it. Or you (just) went and passed it. Or you passed it.

This is the way

This is why modern media players try to find your media based on metadata, ignoring file structure.

Which is a nice option, but I geneally need a well presented visual way to find things too because I frequently forget the names due to ADHD. Visual reminders are great when I can't think of the name.

https://chrisant996.github.io/clink/

The annoying part of this is that any good UX person will tell you not to keep changing things around, but they get overruled by MBAs and shareholders.

Last time I checked, both AnyDesk and RustDesk can remote access Android phones. You will need to set it up in person, because the install is too complicated for non-technical person.

I don't know how much easier it can get than drag and drop. Do you mean copy/cut and paste, because I don't think remembering paths for the CLI is easier.

Cheese is on the top shelf instead of the middle shelf, "We're out of cheese!"

Sometimes giving the fish is the right choice.

Your clients knew how to use the mouse?!?

Listen here, buddy. That needs to be labeled "not safe for IT" because it gave me PTSD.

Imagine a world where everyone has some CLI for most of the stuff, even if alongside GUI

- How do I X?
- Ctrl+Alt+T and paste this.

(Even though it's not good for security)

This is what clickfix is based on.

Nightmare fuel

Apologies

I asked a client to close all open windows and he literally stood up and shut all windows in his apartment. I've had heard that as a bad joke before, but i experienced it live during a support call.

Edit: another highlight was the client who answered the question what 56k modem she used with the words: "My modem is lit up and colorful." This experience probably was the start of making everything glow in RGB as soon as we had blue leds figured out.

You want not good for security? Just ssh into their machine and fix it from a terminal.

I had a guy who literally couldn't use a mouse. Master's Degree in electrical engineering, used to manage a department of 10 engineers.

Then he developed a glue huffing habit and ended up working for us...

Phone support in the 1990s was an absolute blast... 30 minutes round and around before "oh, NOW I understand what you're trying to describe."

"I wrote it down and glued it to the screen and its not fixed. Do you even know how to do your job?"

I learned Autocad 14 on my own machine across a couple of months. Customized my input tablet and keyboard shortcuts to make my common tasks easier.

Then I went to a machine shop to have my widgets built, and tried to use their Autocad - and I was completely helpless, asking "how do you ... ?" for the most common tasks. I never bothered to customize key-shortcuts again, I don't work alone on a single machine enough to make it worthwhile.

Teach a man to fish, tomorrow he has already forgotten. If he was going to catch his own fish, he would have learned how to long before this.

I don't use discord. Recently, I tried to get into a community server because what can you do.
They have a bot set up. You get access to an isolated channel and have to confirm you've read the rules by checking a checkbox, whatever good that does. People who use discord may know what I'm talking about.
For the life of me, I didn't get that I have to click the emoji reaction to the post. I write software for a living. I know what reactions to posts are, but they were disabled. Clicking such an emoji to interact with it is a discord exclusive option, usually that opens a list of people who have reacted.
And holy shit was the "community support" dude a dick about it.

Sometimes you just have to be patient with people. It might be the most obvious thing to you, and it's just a blind spot for others, despite everything.

Past*

I’ve had heard that as a bad joke before, but i experienced it live during a support call.

This reminds me of a turkish standup bit. Paraphrased :

You know we have these regional jokes about people from the north right? Well, I went to do a show there, and I didn't realise that those jokes are actually events that happen there every day. While I was there, I ended up being in several of these jokes, and in one of them, I was the englishman! When we were trying to get back , I went up to an older gent and I said "uncle, do you know where the airport is" and he responded to me "the airplane airport?" No, there's a ZEPPLIN that takes off from Rize every half an hour, direct to Istanbul!

the newest feature MUST BE most obvious so the metrics make it look worthwhile.

The metrics are the most important thing, haven't you gone to business school?

If you try, you might fail. The lesson is : never try.

Yeah, install remote desktop. Now every time they are slightly confused, you have to drop everything and remote desktop into their machine to get rid of whatever inconvenience they have.

He just kind of drags a folder or file to the window, which may have a list of many folders and stares blankly, like a cat, then drops the file somewhere there. He has been instructed to drop it on the background surface if he want it in that folder and on a folder if he wants it in there. Doesn't matter he forgets and just does.

When I force him to use right, click-copy/move or ctrl+c/v, he is forced to think about what and to where.

I think he doesn't want to think. Mental bump to overcome that he avoids. Exactly what old people should not do. He needs to be forced to use that brain.