Reading between the lines...questions from non-IT people
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I constantly hear non-IT types misusing terms. My brother in-law just texted to ask 'Does flash drives come from adobe? I cant view ESPN video...etc'. :omg: I showed it to the wife who commented 'what a moron, he means a zip drive!'. :wtf: :~ I tried my best not to laugh, or correct her. :rolleyes: but I couldn't help myself. Other commonly misused terms and what they actually mean to say: 0: upload - download, copy, import, export 1: file - folder (or the other way around) 2: database - any kind of file, but usually not a database 3: memory - hard drive space (or again, the other way around) What are some of the funnier misuses of IT related terms you have heard?
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
I know one who refers to Microsoft Office as an Operating System:~
<sig notetoself="think of a better signature"> <first>Jim</first> <last>Meadors</last> </sig>
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I constantly hear non-IT types misusing terms. My brother in-law just texted to ask 'Does flash drives come from adobe? I cant view ESPN video...etc'. :omg: I showed it to the wife who commented 'what a moron, he means a zip drive!'. :wtf: :~ I tried my best not to laugh, or correct her. :rolleyes: but I couldn't help myself. Other commonly misused terms and what they actually mean to say: 0: upload - download, copy, import, export 1: file - folder (or the other way around) 2: database - any kind of file, but usually not a database 3: memory - hard drive space (or again, the other way around) What are some of the funnier misuses of IT related terms you have heard?
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
One I get all the time which I'm surprised I haven't read yet: desktop background == screen saver "Nice screen saver!" they'll say, about a desktop background photo...usually I thank them and follow that by asking "Hey what do they call that animation that appears when your computer is left idle..?" and they fall silent. Prior graphics designer used to quip "let's go digital" when intending to move our newsletter from PDF to HTML format... My mom greatly amuses me with the use of "voice" for computer audio...."my computer has no voice!" she'll say, when the speakers aren't working. However if computers evolve to the point where they naturally converse with users then this will start making a lot of sense.
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Another radical idea, set up a DB that tracks the error message and the program file that creates the message and when it is inserted into a table maybe the line number in the file when it was recorded (At least the function it is in) and you then use the identity field's value in the error message. When you look up the records that match LIKE '%maze%' you can then list all the messages and ask them to identify which one they got, so they can say "I dunno, doe-N rememer"
KP Lee wrote:
set up a DB that tracks the error message
Nice sentiment, wrong era. I do that now, and for critical errors, have the program e-mail me what ails it, so I'm ready for the inevitable customer service call. But this was the early 90's and networks were barely in existence (the battles were raging over Token Ring or TCP/IP) and DBASE was the only SQL database we had access to on an individual machine. As I recall we only had one person on staff who knew anything about SQL. The application was using 2400 baud modems to talk to the mainframe that had the document search engine. The workstation program was responsible for presentation and maintaining the document cache. At approximately 240 characters a second, you don't download megabyte documents. So the program had to track what portions of a document had already been downloaded and ask for the missing pieces should the user scroll through to one. There was a mode called KWIC - key word in context, where you could search for a term, like "mickey mouse" and you could configure it to display x lines in front and y lines after the line found with that term, for as many places it occurred in the document. It was designed for legal document searches and lawyers (at that time) were extremely technophobic. The company had been brought kicking and screaming into the computer age. We even had a semi-clandestine project to bring the search engine to the desktop using those newfangled devices called "CD-ROMs". Management was unconvinced that they would ever amount to anything.
Psychosis at 10 Film at 11 Those who do not remember the past, are doomed to repeat it. Those who do not remember the past, cannot build upon it.
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One I get all the time which I'm surprised I haven't read yet: desktop background == screen saver "Nice screen saver!" they'll say, about a desktop background photo...usually I thank them and follow that by asking "Hey what do they call that animation that appears when your computer is left idle..?" and they fall silent. Prior graphics designer used to quip "let's go digital" when intending to move our newsletter from PDF to HTML format... My mom greatly amuses me with the use of "voice" for computer audio...."my computer has no voice!" she'll say, when the speakers aren't working. However if computers evolve to the point where they naturally converse with users then this will start making a lot of sense.