"I just need a little help, should only take a few minutes!"
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The evening started with a phone call from my aunt. My uncle (curse his name) bought her a new 12 megapixel camera for her birthday (a celebration, I might add, I was not invited to and so missed my aunt's ridiculously awesome triple-chocolate cake). She was having trouble loading pictures onto her computer. With the prompt from the title of this post, I headed over. Of course, I took my laptop and 'tool kit' assortment of tech gadgets and cables to help things along, if need-be. It's a little Sony Cybershot with steadycam or something. Nice little unit. I sit down in front of her 'puter. My face goes blank. Windows Freekin' 98. The camera won't detect. She bought a card reader (at the advice of the clerk), which blue-screens the OS when you plug it in. Inspecting the packaging it's USB 2.0, which her PC was puking on. I get my old card reader (USB 1) out of my bag-of-tricks. I get it working, but then I made the shocking discovery that she had 800 Mb free on her 20 Gb hard drive. 12 megapixel shots (in RAW) means about 60 photos. 240 if she compresses, I think. Either way, I explain the situation and she sends me off to buy an external hard drive. I stop by my brother's, who has a PCI USB 2.0 card. Sweet. All set. Until I plug that bad-boy 1TB drive in and realize that Win 98 can't do anything meaningful with it. Long story short... My aunt now owns a $425 Win 7 computer (and is loving it) and I have a spare 1TB drive kicking around. She's bringing over a 'treat' for me this weekend. I'm hoping it's a cake, and not her old PC.
Stories like this are all too familar. But that is what we get for being the resident geek in the family.
Steve Maier
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Stories like this are all too familar. But that is what we get for being the resident geek in the family.
Steve Maier
Remember that "I won't fix your computer" T-Shirt sold on thinkgeek.com ?
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The evening started with a phone call from my aunt. My uncle (curse his name) bought her a new 12 megapixel camera for her birthday (a celebration, I might add, I was not invited to and so missed my aunt's ridiculously awesome triple-chocolate cake). She was having trouble loading pictures onto her computer. With the prompt from the title of this post, I headed over. Of course, I took my laptop and 'tool kit' assortment of tech gadgets and cables to help things along, if need-be. It's a little Sony Cybershot with steadycam or something. Nice little unit. I sit down in front of her 'puter. My face goes blank. Windows Freekin' 98. The camera won't detect. She bought a card reader (at the advice of the clerk), which blue-screens the OS when you plug it in. Inspecting the packaging it's USB 2.0, which her PC was puking on. I get my old card reader (USB 1) out of my bag-of-tricks. I get it working, but then I made the shocking discovery that she had 800 Mb free on her 20 Gb hard drive. 12 megapixel shots (in RAW) means about 60 photos. 240 if she compresses, I think. Either way, I explain the situation and she sends me off to buy an external hard drive. I stop by my brother's, who has a PCI USB 2.0 card. Sweet. All set. Until I plug that bad-boy 1TB drive in and realize that Win 98 can't do anything meaningful with it. Long story short... My aunt now owns a $425 Win 7 computer (and is loving it) and I have a spare 1TB drive kicking around. She's bringing over a 'treat' for me this weekend. I'm hoping it's a cake, and not her old PC.
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Stories like this are all too familar. But that is what we get for being the resident geek in the family.
Steve Maier
It's the people who don't actually ask that sometimes cause the grief. At the weekend a friend (normally reasonably computer-literate) told me how he had heard about Google Picasa. He downloaded it to play with his wife's lifetime collection of photos (not backed-up of course - they're too precious for frippery like that). Somehow he managed to delete almost all the photos - with Picasa! :confused: He then searched for an undelete program (continuing to use the same computer, of course), paid £30 for it and downloaded it. It failed (or he failed) to recover most of the photos. It was hard to work out whether his wife was most distressed by a) his losing the photos b) his wasting £30 c) his not telling her until it was too late He told me all this without actually asking for my help and made me feel a heel for not volunteering.
Phil
The opinions expressed in this post are not necessarily those of the author, especially if you find them impolite, inaccurate or inflammatory.
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Remember that "I won't fix your computer" T-Shirt sold on thinkgeek.com ?
A colleague of mine uses this line. "I'm a software engineer.... I don't wash windows..." I've always remembered that one.
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Oh, if it were only that simple. This aunt, in particular, needs a lot more than just devices. A swift kick to the (expletive self-censored to meet KSF guidelines), at times, would be most appropriate. She does bake a good cake, though, so you have to leave room for her in your life. ;)
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Remember that "I won't fix your computer" T-Shirt sold on thinkgeek.com ?
I own that one... It doesn't work. Just lets people know that you're a computer geek...
Proud to have finally moved to the A-Ark. Which one are you in?
Author of the Guardians Saga (Sci-Fi/Fantasy novels) -
It's the people who don't actually ask that sometimes cause the grief. At the weekend a friend (normally reasonably computer-literate) told me how he had heard about Google Picasa. He downloaded it to play with his wife's lifetime collection of photos (not backed-up of course - they're too precious for frippery like that). Somehow he managed to delete almost all the photos - with Picasa! :confused: He then searched for an undelete program (continuing to use the same computer, of course), paid £30 for it and downloaded it. It failed (or he failed) to recover most of the photos. It was hard to work out whether his wife was most distressed by a) his losing the photos b) his wasting £30 c) his not telling her until it was too late He told me all this without actually asking for my help and made me feel a heel for not volunteering.
Phil
The opinions expressed in this post are not necessarily those of the author, especially if you find them impolite, inaccurate or inflammatory.
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The evening started with a phone call from my aunt. My uncle (curse his name) bought her a new 12 megapixel camera for her birthday (a celebration, I might add, I was not invited to and so missed my aunt's ridiculously awesome triple-chocolate cake). She was having trouble loading pictures onto her computer. With the prompt from the title of this post, I headed over. Of course, I took my laptop and 'tool kit' assortment of tech gadgets and cables to help things along, if need-be. It's a little Sony Cybershot with steadycam or something. Nice little unit. I sit down in front of her 'puter. My face goes blank. Windows Freekin' 98. The camera won't detect. She bought a card reader (at the advice of the clerk), which blue-screens the OS when you plug it in. Inspecting the packaging it's USB 2.0, which her PC was puking on. I get my old card reader (USB 1) out of my bag-of-tricks. I get it working, but then I made the shocking discovery that she had 800 Mb free on her 20 Gb hard drive. 12 megapixel shots (in RAW) means about 60 photos. 240 if she compresses, I think. Either way, I explain the situation and she sends me off to buy an external hard drive. I stop by my brother's, who has a PCI USB 2.0 card. Sweet. All set. Until I plug that bad-boy 1TB drive in and realize that Win 98 can't do anything meaningful with it. Long story short... My aunt now owns a $425 Win 7 computer (and is loving it) and I have a spare 1TB drive kicking around. She's bringing over a 'treat' for me this weekend. I'm hoping it's a cake, and not her old PC.
TheyCallMeMrJames wrote:
. 12 megapixel shots (in RAW) means about 60 photos.
First thing first ... set camera to jpg and don't tell her.
Watched code never compiles.
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TheyCallMeMrJames wrote:
. 12 megapixel shots (in RAW) means about 60 photos.
First thing first ... set camera to jpg and don't tell her.
Watched code never compiles.
That's an awfully aunt-ist remark. Just because she was running Win98 doesn't mean she doesn't understand and benefit from RAW image files!
Phil
The opinions expressed in this post are not necessarily those of the author, especially if you find them impolite, inaccurate or inflammatory.
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I own that one... It doesn't work. Just lets people know that you're a computer geek...
Proud to have finally moved to the A-Ark. Which one are you in?
Author of the Guardians Saga (Sci-Fi/Fantasy novels) -
That's an awfully aunt-ist remark. Just because she was running Win98 doesn't mean she doesn't understand and benefit from RAW image files!
Phil
The opinions expressed in this post are not necessarily those of the author, especially if you find them impolite, inaccurate or inflammatory.
Phil J Pearson wrote:
That's an awfully aunt-ist remark
You'd think he was anti-auntie! Still, just the same, next time I see her I'm borrowing her camera for a few minutes...
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The evening started with a phone call from my aunt. My uncle (curse his name) bought her a new 12 megapixel camera for her birthday (a celebration, I might add, I was not invited to and so missed my aunt's ridiculously awesome triple-chocolate cake). She was having trouble loading pictures onto her computer. With the prompt from the title of this post, I headed over. Of course, I took my laptop and 'tool kit' assortment of tech gadgets and cables to help things along, if need-be. It's a little Sony Cybershot with steadycam or something. Nice little unit. I sit down in front of her 'puter. My face goes blank. Windows Freekin' 98. The camera won't detect. She bought a card reader (at the advice of the clerk), which blue-screens the OS when you plug it in. Inspecting the packaging it's USB 2.0, which her PC was puking on. I get my old card reader (USB 1) out of my bag-of-tricks. I get it working, but then I made the shocking discovery that she had 800 Mb free on her 20 Gb hard drive. 12 megapixel shots (in RAW) means about 60 photos. 240 if she compresses, I think. Either way, I explain the situation and she sends me off to buy an external hard drive. I stop by my brother's, who has a PCI USB 2.0 card. Sweet. All set. Until I plug that bad-boy 1TB drive in and realize that Win 98 can't do anything meaningful with it. Long story short... My aunt now owns a $425 Win 7 computer (and is loving it) and I have a spare 1TB drive kicking around. She's bringing over a 'treat' for me this weekend. I'm hoping it's a cake, and not her old PC.
ouch! Windows 98????? Does she know its now the year 2010? :)
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ouch! Windows 98????? Does she know its now the year 2010? :)
yeh. my fam's old skool. ;) another aunt of mine still uses dial-up. last year she had to switch to DSL, even though her computer didn't support it (they're dropping dialup in her area), and she just uses the 'backup' dialup service, which is an 800 number you're to use when you're on the road. by "didn't support it" I mean this: when the tech opened her PC up he couldn't see the slots from the dust. moments later he declared, "I don't think I have an ISA NIC in my truck..."
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Remember that "I won't fix your computer" T-Shirt sold on thinkgeek.com ?
Rage wrote:
I won't fix your computer
He didn't. It got layed off. :)
Luc Pattyn [Forum Guidelines] [Why QA sucks] [My Articles] Nil Volentibus Arduum
Please use <PRE> tags for code snippets, they preserve indentation, and improve readability.
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The evening started with a phone call from my aunt. My uncle (curse his name) bought her a new 12 megapixel camera for her birthday (a celebration, I might add, I was not invited to and so missed my aunt's ridiculously awesome triple-chocolate cake). She was having trouble loading pictures onto her computer. With the prompt from the title of this post, I headed over. Of course, I took my laptop and 'tool kit' assortment of tech gadgets and cables to help things along, if need-be. It's a little Sony Cybershot with steadycam or something. Nice little unit. I sit down in front of her 'puter. My face goes blank. Windows Freekin' 98. The camera won't detect. She bought a card reader (at the advice of the clerk), which blue-screens the OS when you plug it in. Inspecting the packaging it's USB 2.0, which her PC was puking on. I get my old card reader (USB 1) out of my bag-of-tricks. I get it working, but then I made the shocking discovery that she had 800 Mb free on her 20 Gb hard drive. 12 megapixel shots (in RAW) means about 60 photos. 240 if she compresses, I think. Either way, I explain the situation and she sends me off to buy an external hard drive. I stop by my brother's, who has a PCI USB 2.0 card. Sweet. All set. Until I plug that bad-boy 1TB drive in and realize that Win 98 can't do anything meaningful with it. Long story short... My aunt now owns a $425 Win 7 computer (and is loving it) and I have a spare 1TB drive kicking around. She's bringing over a 'treat' for me this weekend. I'm hoping it's a cake, and not her old PC.
You should have really read The Oatmeal
============= Marco Turrini