Information support staff like to play little games with people’s minds, like saying, “Reboot” or “pack it up, you’re just too dumb to own a computer.” We think it’s funny.
But the truth is we pull some pretty good ID-10-T errors of our own. I’m the application specialist who hoped to die in a DOS world. Today, every piece of computer hardware, peripheral equipment, and software is connected to each other and has to be synchronized and recognized to talk to one another. Like the head bone’s connected to the neck bone, the neck bone’s connected to the arm bone, the arm bone’s connected to the leg bone. Anatomy is not my forte.
Generally speaking, Wikipedia is not necessary to get through one of my blog posts, so to make the next paragraph more user-friendly, I’ll include a translation for those of you not fluent in computerese.
Computer Literate version: Last week I needed to do in-house training to employees as well as others over the WAN. My co-worker in charge of hardware set up E-Blvd for a training session over the internet. The room was not equipped for audio transmission. Attendees needed to call in to a conference call set up over the standard telephone. I fiddled with the headset in the bathroom mirror to see how I looked before plugging it into the USB port. Looks are important. Are you with me?
Translation: Last week I needed to do in-house training (teaching someone to do something a certain way, husbands excluded) to employees as well as others over the WAN – wide area network — kind of like when I yell at my husband from upstairs and he’s in the kitchen. My co-worker in charge of hardware (the heavy lifting), set up E-Blvd (web conferencing software) for a training session over the internet (the big information highway in the sky that Al Gore thinks he created). The room was not equipped for audio transmission (built-in microphones), meaning no one would be able to hear past my normal range, which is about two blocks. Any outside webinar (live presentation over the internet) attendees needed to call in to a conference call (like the old party lines, but in the case of a conference call, you actually want others to hear what you are saying) set up over the standard telephone. I fiddled with the headset (the earmuffs that have sounds coming out of the ear pieces) before plugging it into the USB port (the little rectangular hole thing-y in the front of the computer with sticky-out prongs). Whew! See what you learned!
Of course, I wanted to test out the connection before class began. One of the students arrived early. I had already become host, like inviting someone to my house for dinner, of the conference call. I adjusted my earpiece and microphone and walked up to the student seated in the room. “Can you hear me okay with this headset?”
She looked puzzled. “Of course, I can hear you,” she replied. “You’re standing right in front of me.”
Who’s the ID-10-T (idiot) now?
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hilarious, I can’t stop laughing