Forum: Rants
Topic: People that talk about things they don't know (computers)
started by: TonyDennis
Posted by TonyDennis on Jun. 03 2000,04:31
Does anyone else have this problem? I can't stand people that act like they know *anything* about computers, but really don't. They use computer terms incorrectly and act like they know what they're talking about. Sometimes it's funny because they usually talk to people who know less than themselves and the other person believes ever word, but when they try and talk to me... grrrr it just makes me want to scream "SHUT THE .... UP, lam0r!"-Tony ------------------
< w00t >.
Posted by Sithiee on Jun. 03 2000,06:19
Theres this guy in my school, and hes exactly like what your describing, hes possibly one of the stupidest people ive ever met. The scary part is, he wants to be a brain surgeon (thats a whole nother rant in itself)...but hes always talking to me about computer science (hes in first year, i just aced AP) like he knows what hes talking about, and its really funny, because i basically run circles around him untill he says "oh...ok....i dont understand what the hell your talking about"...see some of my postings in the I Hate People thread...people are so fuckin stupid
Posted by incubus on Jun. 03 2000,08:07
Grrrrrr, yeah, I know exactly what you mean. Like some people that try to impress others, just cos they use long words deliberately to confuse lay-people. I've lost out over jobs such as web design cos some other guy has ranted about "mastering advanced hypertext markup language generation packages" and baffled the client into thinking they're smart. In one such case someone I know did it, then came up to me and said "HTML, it's just like microsoft word isnt it? can you show me how to do it as im doing this guy's site now?" GRRRRRR------------------
-- incubus
As I chase the leaves like the words I never find ...
Posted by Happyfish on Jun. 04 2000,07:11
Hehe...like this guy in my grade ten class..
He thought a 3.5 inch disk was a HARD disk..
(cause of the plastic case I suppose..)
Posted by Sithiee on Jun. 04 2000,07:44
shut up, when i was little, before i got my computer, i didnt understand why the floppy disk wasnt a hard disk...i mean, it was hard...of course after seeing a real hard disk, it all made sense...
Posted by Hellraiser on Jun. 04 2000,14:23
Have you ever seen any of the old style floppys, the 5 1/4 inch one? Those things actually were floppy, you could flex them quite a lot. And as far as I know the reason a harddisk is called a harddisk is because it is hardwired (not a good term I guess) into the system as opposed to a removable disk (if anyone knows better than that please inform me). But things like semantics relating to computers aren't a big deal. It's someone who uses technical terms for the sole purpose of trying to inflate their ego that gets on my nerves. I know I have done my share of misuse of technical terms, but I don't do it to make myself look cooler or more intelligent to others. And that's where the difference lies. I don't pretend to know everything about computers, I don't think anybody does. But I do know more than some people about how they work and how to use them properly, although I still have a lot to learn. It is this type of "I'm still learning new things" attitude when it comes to computers (And life in general) that makes all the difference in the world.------------------
Just your generic meaningless signature. Mix with 2 quarts water and stir till evenly coated.
Posted by TonyDennis on Jun. 04 2000,14:39
quote:
Originally posted by Hellraiser:
I don't pretend to know everything about computers, I don't think anybody does.
Those are the people I'm talking about! They're very annoying :) -Tony ------------------
< w00t >.
Posted by Anztac on Jun. 04 2000,16:30
I hate these kind of people. I have to admit though I am one of these people every once and a while. I stop myself when I catch myself doing it. I really don't need the ego trip though. I get that whenever I do the most petty stuff. Like "WO HOO I SET UP A DNS SERVER" or "WO HO I KNOW HOW LAYERS AND JAVASCRIPT INTERACT" or ...well you get the idea. The cool thing is though when someone has the brains to admit that he doesn't know what I'm talking about and actually *ASK* for an explanation. I usually then explain as simply as I can. If they tell me they're interested I will help them, but no one ever asks. It really annoys me that people are so concided they won't ask for help------------------
~Anztac - The guy who had the really long sig (formerly Kriegman) "I am easily driven into a flying rage by blithering idiots"
-cr0bar [The god of this domain]
Posted by Nero on Jun. 04 2000,18:22
anztac, i would say we but i mean me, don't like to look like a total jackass. if someone says something that i don't understand, i make a mental note and find out about it later. i know enough to not get into arguments or discussions that are outside my realm of knowledge (books, civ2, killing windows and (hopefully) fixing whatever i just broke.then again, i'm just defending me, i deal so many stupid motherfuckers everyday at work that i'm seriously considering a city wide killing spree. i'll plead temporary insanity and ask for detnet members to be in my jury...
Posted by BM_Ray on Jun. 04 2000,21:12
Not 100\% sure, Hellraiser, but I think the reason a Hard disk is called a hard disk is because the disk itself (where the data is stored) is hard metal, and not floppy, like floppy disks.And TonyDennis, Shut up before I download you a virus that me and my freind put on one of my hard disks! Fear me, because I am l33t because my monitor has a revolution of 768 x 1024! Ha!
Posted by xaustinx on Jun. 04 2000,21:22
i can't tell u how many times a teacher or student at my old high school would call a 3.5" disk a hard disk *shrug*. I would nicely correct them, but the only response i got was either "i dont care, i hate computers" or "whatever".
Posted by Sithiee on Jun. 04 2000,23:07
Hellraiser - the only truly l33t hax0rs used to use 5.25s, and i have like 500...my first computer came with that and a 3.5, which was incredibly new at the time...it was superneat but no one had anything for it.Anztac - I am that guy who wont ask you what you mean, i know it, i admit it. I throw out stuff i dont know only very rarely though, and usually its stuff that most people dont know, and so they pretend to know not to look dumb in front of me, and i pretend to know for the exact same reason...you see, if no one knows your ignorant, then are you actually?
Posted by Hellraiser on Jun. 04 2000,23:43
Sithie, I used to use a computer with a 5.25 floppy at school, and my first computer had one as well. My second computer was the first computer I got that had a 3.5 floppy drive in it, and it wasn't untill my third computer that I had a CD-ROM drive. I'm now on number 5 which has both a DVD drive and a CDRW drive in it.
The actual disks (platters) in a harddisk are harder than the disk in a floppy, so you could be right as to the distinction there, Ray.------------------
Just your generic meaningless signature. Mix with 2 quarts water and stir till evenly coated.
Posted by j0eSmith on Jun. 04 2000,23:59
My first computer was an Apple IIe! 1800 floppies and no harddrive, ahh those were the days. My first real game was Wings of Fury, thats still one of my all time favorites. I really hate people who talk about how well they 'surf' the 'net. Example.. Them: Man, this is so cool, I found this porn site, and if you click on free tour you get free pictures! Me: Uh-huh.. Them: And I found this really sweet program on this hacking site.. it like nukes other peoples computers and makes them crash. Me: You mean Winnuke? Them: Yeah, thats it! You use it to? (actual conversation from earlier this week, and it went on like that)
Posted by incubus on Jun. 05 2000,03:20
I remember having a really old Amstrad PC ... and reading the books there were floppy (5.25") disks - im positive it's because they were floppy, I assume that hard is just the opposite of floppy, oo-er, 'cos on that Amstrad it wasn't referred to as a hard disk, just a "Winchester Fixed Disk" or a "Winchester Drive". Thought you may find that interesting ...------------------
-- incubus
As I chase the leaves like the words I never find ...
Posted by Anztac on Jun. 05 2000,07:02
Unlike you guys I can't remember "the good olde days" bacuse honostly the computer I grew up on was i386 with (mostly) just DOS and a shitty Windows. I do ask because if don't think your ignorant your still ignorant. If I was talking about setting a NIS server and you didn't know what it meant and you didn't ask you still couldn't set it up yourself. I think if I'm talking to the co-auther of O'Reilly's PERL book (and I do) that I would ask him for advice on PERL. I respect people alot more when they ask. Your never too old to learn. ------------------
~Anztac - The guy who had the really long sig (formerly Kriegman) "I am easily driven into a flying rage by blithering idiots"
-cr0bar [The god of this domain]
Posted by Wolfguard on Jun. 05 2000,08:39
the best of these are the ones that ask you for help and when you tell them the problem the first thing out of their mouth is...
"That not it"
Well if you knew what the problem is why are you bothering me, Fucknugget!------------------
The gene pool has no life guard, support the GPPTF (Gene Pool Purification Task Force)
< http://www.geocities.com/jgoeke610/ >
Past and future pr0n star :)
Posted by Sithiee on Jun. 05 2000,14:19
there are several things that can be caused by different problems, so when they tell you thats not it, maybe they know about that particular problem, and so when they say its not it, they might actually know so, be a little more forgiving
Posted by Wolfguard on Jun. 06 2000,06:47
not when the error is a no operating system found and they told me they just installed a driver and they ALWAYS leave a disk in the floppy, AND they have this arguement with me at least twice a month.Forgiveness is for the weak. The stupid should be shot. ------------------
The gene pool has no life guard, support the GPPTF (Gene Pool Purification Task Force)
< http://www.geocities.com/jgoeke610/ >
Past and future pr0n star :)
Posted by Kolben on Jun. 06 2000,07:35
But only in their kneecaps!Some salesman just tried to sell me a couple of writable cds a week ago. He told me that those I were about to buy was 4x-speed cds and if I put it in a cd-drive faster than 4xspeed I'd ruin them. But maybe it would work with new drives, with good cooling. Then he wanted me to buy some other that costed about 2$ each. I stuck with the others...burnt them with 12xspeed and put them in my 40xspeed cd-rom drive...they still work... [This message has been edited by Kolben (edited June 06, 2000).]
Posted by Wolfguard on Jun. 06 2000,09:09
ill shoot them in the kneecaps, i need to slow them down somehow so i can give them the mercy shot. Im to old to be chasing them down.------------------
The gene pool has no life guard, support the GPPTF (Gene Pool Purification Task Force)
< http://www.geocities.com/jgoeke610/ >
Past and future pr0n star :)
Posted by Hellraiser on Jun. 06 2000,09:22
Kneecaps isn't painful enough.------------------
Just your generic meaningless signature. Mix with 2 quarts water and stir till evenly coated.
Posted by kuros- on Jun. 06 2000,10:08
Salesman are bad but College techs who are treated as gods? thats a joke, Military don't have a clue about security, so restrict all web traffic through the firewall, that should stop students spending all day in chat rooms or IRC.Hah, what do they really know, its taken me some time but I'm on it now. Stupid g*ts. These people are employed to know everthing, thats annoying Where do people here go?
Posted by aventari on Jun. 06 2000,18:09
if they really were only 4x max compatible, when burning them at that 12x speed they will get fux0red.
I've tried burning old-ass 2x CDs at 8x and guess what? they didn't work! I wasted like 6-7 before i figured out that i was burning them too fast... i was pissed! So i think either you got 12x compatible media(they have 12x drives now? :P)
or you got lucky
quote:
Originally posted by Kolben:
But only in their kneecaps!Some salesman just tried to sell me a couple of writable cds a week ago. He told me that those I were about to buy was 4x-speed cds and if I put it in a cd-drive faster than 4xspeed I'd ruin them. But maybe it would work with new drives, with good cooling. Then he wanted me to buy some other that costed about 2$ each. I stuck with the others...burnt them with 12xspeed and put them in my 40xspeed cd-rom drive...they still work... [This message has been edited by Kolben (edited June 06, 2000).]
------------------
aventari
"witty one-liner"
Posted by Kolben on Jun. 07 2000,04:14
Well, they're are the ones I always use. And there's a little 8x in the corner of the box. Some people is just lame. I don't think he had tried burning a single cd ever...
Posted by Kayy on Jun. 08 2000,12:15
Well, on the subject of CD writers, I got me an ancient yamaha 2216 (16r2w2rw) and I have had no problems burning a thing with it, people say that you will always get at least one cd that screws up when you try and burn it, I've never, and I mean never, had a single defective cd come out of my drive.As for people that think they know everything about computers, talk to my dad, he's even l337'er than me, he knows everything there is to know (NOT!). ------------------
When darkness calls and the pain and suffering begin again, you can guarantee that I shall be the instigator.
-
Kevin "Kayy" Beadle, The Proprietor and Innovator of Kayyos-Vx WebDesigns.
Posted by Sithiee on Jun. 08 2000,15:03
heh, my dad thinks hes really good with computers, and thats why his p2-400 with 96 mb of ram runs about 1/4 as fast as my p2-450 with 64 MB of ram....what a dumb fuck
Posted by Kolben on Jun. 08 2000,16:19
My mother thinks she doesn't know computers on the other hand. But she managed to install windows98 on a 155 MB HD without help (almost). She started ran the install with the "don't check for diskspace switch". Then when it rebooted she booted it into DOS (Yup DOS) and deleted some of the compressed files (I told her she could do that with zip-files and such) and rebooted into the installer that finished. Then to clear some room for the swap file (I told her she needed that) she found win98-lite on the net and uninstalled IE and a bunch of other stuff. Then she installed netscape, and now the computer is up and running. I think that was pretty l33t of my mother.[This message has been edited by Kolben (edited June 08, 2000).]
Posted by fendi on Jun. 08 2000,19:23
bah! wish my mom was more like that... i keep telling her how to save a demmed word document... how to print... how you can still cut and paste even if its not in windows... (but thats too complicated for her, i must admit) and no, i can't check her email as some one is using the extra phoneline that was supposed to be the modem line which i am solely paying for!! (and no, no one was using the other phoneline) *growl*
Posted by Nero on Jun. 08 2000,20:30
my mother just called me to ask if she should buy a gateway for 邇. she just needs it to type and for e-mail. my step dad wants to play q3 and rainbow six. "but that machine will run quake, right?" that side of the family makes me wonder if i'm adopted... oh well, at least they don't pretend to know what's going on. "make it work, i don't want to know why or how, just make it work."
Posted by Anztac on Jun. 08 2000,22:24
Heey mt mom and dad kick ass. Since my dad's 64 (don't ask) he was a FORTRAN programmer and wrote some of the first fuzzy logic programs. He aproached Zadeh with his methodes. Zadeh said it was unortidox and stupid. The other thing my dad helped with that people called unortidox and stupid was Quantum physics. He also was in a company that developed AI. So my dads l337. My mom can work Oracle databases. She's also l337. ------------------
~Anztac - The guy who had the really long sig (formerly Kriegman) "I am easily driven into a flying rage by blithering idiots"
-cr0bar [The god of this domain]
Posted by Lordbrandon on Jun. 08 2000,22:49
I hate when your trying to teach someone something and they wont even listen because its always easier to make me do it. :Pmy first computer was an 8086 compaq luggable sporting dos 1.0 (you thought 98 was buggy?) i was six years old, and i had to wake my mother up on saturday morning to ask her what the date was. (the early versions of dos made you type in the date every time you starded the computer up)and i played a game called shamus where you were a litle man in a hat and you had to walk arond theese halways and tried to avoid bugs. it had an about 5/6 inch monocrom green monitor and two 5.25 floppy drives.
Posted by Wolfguard on Jun. 09 2000,14:11
i remember playing Wizardry on one of those compaq luggables. What a pos that thing was. The os was cmp i think
------------------
The gene pool has no life guard, support the GPPTF (Gene Pool Purification Task Force)
< http://www.geocities.com/jgoeke610/ >
Past and future pr0n star :)
Posted by Bob_Cannibal on Jun. 17 2000,21:54
really? my first (owned) was a tandy 1000...my sister went like this: "del .." and pushed "Y"... I was now in hell... the bootdisk computing... no, but, my first one used at school? IBM AT on a network... my elem. school? (still has 'em in the lab, their only machines...) apple IIgs's...
(I'm 15...) this computer? a Compaq pentium 133... should overclock it... it's too slow... barely runs HL... my next? custom built, by me. oh: ppl who don't know their topic if it's about Tech... we call those ppl "upper Management..." (read: my mom's boss...) I know more than he does... he's 45... ouch... my mom is OK tech-wise... she can repartition a HD, install Windows 98, she used to program in FORTRAN... (college required course for comp sci...
ehehehe
------------------
Naw git offa mah Properdy!™ [This message has been edited by Bob_Cannibal (edited June 17, 2000).]
Posted by Zamt on Jun. 18 2000,02:19
My first comp was a Apple IIe at school. Only is l33t gifted program people got to use them tho. We even had a robot. We could program it to move with the Turtle program. It was cool. My first home comp was an Apple IIc. 128K! Kicked so much ass, I was the envy of all my friends. It even had a color monitor! The first game I played on it was Wizardy I. I got to where I could go from the town in the game down to the bad guy on lvl 10 of the dungeon and kill him with my eyes closed. Literally. I knew the path and could just hit the arrow keys and then attack. Ahh, the good old days. And the absolute coolness of Pool of Radience when it came out. Wow. Can you tell I'm 27?------------------
A day without sunshine, is like, you know, night.
Posted by Wolfguard on Jun. 19 2000,10:48
FFFs
tiltowait
s
tiltowait
s
tiltowait
Yea...i remember that game.
------------------
The gene pool has no life guard, support the GPPTF (Gene Pool Purification Task Force)
< http://www.geocities.com/jgoeke610/ >
Past and future pr0n star :)
Posted by PsyShook on Jun. 20 2000,03:56
First computers for anyone are one big experience. My first computer was an IBM PCjr. I don't know if that's supposed to be jr as in JUNIOR or just JR. Cause there is a device attaced to it called the jrCaptain. It was to hook a printer up. Well this thing had 2 cartridge slots for BASIC and MS-DOS 2.0 It had 128K of RAM plus the jrCaptain expanded that to 256K. Also there was a 5.25" floppy drive. My dad did most of the DOS work making batch files so we didn't have to do much to play games and work. The odd thing is that my dad can't use Windows now and scarcely uses a computer. I didn't get any comptuers between this one and the one I have now(a 233 pentiumMMX). Just kind of interesting where everyone starts with computers.
Posted by DuSTman on Jun. 20 2000,07:43
Does anyone remember a computer called the ORIC-1? the first computer we had at home. I don't hear much about it, but it wasn't well 1337. I'd like to find put some more information.Then we upgraded to a C64, then atari ST, then p150, now i own a p450..
Posted by Client on Jun. 21 2000,08:11
Just like the guy that is bragging about the Irks he hooked up and the SaDam ram he bought.------------------
"Around 2300, every square mile of the earth's landmass will have the population density of Manhattan at noon."
-Isaac Asimov Ever see a cage of rats starve to death?
Posted by TonyDennis on Jun. 21 2000,19:17
Stupid e-mail notification... :P-Tony ------------------
< w00t >.
Posted by kuros- on Jun. 22 2000,09:02
a friend rang me last night to sort out a problem. When asked what the prob was she said "I just placed a cd into my hifi, it won't work but its fine on your pc".This is an undergrad in Software Eng about to graduate next month and still expects an mp3 cd to play in her hifi. The worst kind of lamor ?
Posted by TonyDennis on Jun. 24 2000,16:28
Yeah, that's pretty bad.-Tony ------------------
< w00t >.
Posted by Zamt on Jun. 29 2000,04:16
Why do you think that so much software is so crappy. These software engineers can program really well, but god forbid they know how to actually do things with software. That's one of the reasons why so many error messages mean nothing whatsoever to anyone. Who gives a shit what state the registers are in?
Posted by rig_hater on Jun. 29 2000,12:33
that doesn't only apply for software engineers, I've seen a lot of hardware engineers like that too. The thing is, in school, you get education concentrated in your field, without any required breadth courses to make you all-round 1337. what schools should be doing is teaching you at least minimal information about all computer fields, with labs so each student can work hands-on and become the ultimate 1337 graduate without having had to spend a lifetime working on computers. the world would be a much better place if such things occurred.------------------
PEBKAC: Problem exists between keyboard and chair.
Posted by Willy Pete on Jun. 30 2000,10:17
It'd be ok if someone actually gave a rats arse about design. There was a good post on /. the other day about this. Software and hardware designers always us on getting it to run smooth, but a lot of people forget that at the end of that sweet technology, a dumb user's gonna sit and go "well let's see what happens if I push this?"The only idiot proofing is the off switch. ------------------
"Sometimes I sits and thinks, but most times I justs sits." - Me.
Posted by Draco on Jun. 30 2000,11:41
quote:
Originally posted by Hellraiser:
Have you ever seen any of the old style floppys, the 5 1/4 inch one?
I had a 5 1/4" floppy drive for my C64 (have actually - I think it is in my attic)I once say one of the 8" floppies - we were clearing out some of the presses in the office and it was at the bottom of one. To go back on topic, it really irratates me when I see salesmen try and tell people a load of bullshit dressed up in technobabble. One guy I worked for was selling websites on a secure server and was going on about how 8bit encryption was the industry standard and that they were using 16bit...this was only last year. Moron. Draco
Posted by jptech on Jul. 01 2000,16:59
OK, 5 1/4" Floppies were fun, but did any of you ever use a cassette drive? You know, with a fine Tandy TRS-80 and that cool DIN to 3 stereo plugs cable?I hated BASIC. I hated my TRS-80. I hated cassette drives. But I love my PIII.
Posted by rig_hater on Jul. 03 2000,18:21
5 1/4" drives are old school! I've got one on my 486sx25 sitting right beside me. still have software for it too. used to have one on my apple IIgs - my fave game back in the day was frogger.  now, i sit back and enjoy my pIII with a cd-burner, screw the floppy drives all together! i don't need them anymore! ------------------
PEBKAC: Problem exists between keyboard and chair.
Posted by Ozymandias on Jul. 03 2000,23:00
Woah...This is how old again? Dude, I remember that the first computer I ever used had one of those...It had this really l33t game on it, too, I wish I could remember what it was called.
Posted by Willy Pete on Jul. 04 2000,07:42
hehe. Yeah, I still got a tape drive .... for an Atari 800 no less. If you wanted cheap games you went out and bought a book of code. 4 pages of Basic and 3 more of the data lines. And they ALWAYS had one or two misprints so you had to debug yourself. Copying programs like Energy Czar were easy, you just copied from audio tape to audio tape. As for old school, does a x286 qualify me? Hehe, pretty sad huh? Still runs, I played Civilisation the other week just for shits and giggles. (Yes, the very first one.)PC speakers suck now that I think of it. Now those were the good old days. Commander Keen, F19 Stealth,.... <mumbles and reaches for zimmer frame>------------------
"Sometimes I sits and thinks, but most times I justs sits." - Me.
Posted by Happyfish on Jul. 04 2000,22:09
I have a dual 8" drive somewhere. It looks like a mini tower and it weighs a ton.
I have no idea if it works, or what format it uses or what kind of computer it plugged into.Oh, and Atari 800s rule.
Posted by SimplyModest on Jul. 05 2000,00:22
im running an AMD athlon 700 with a TNT2 ultra.... and i <i>still</i> use a 5 1/4 disk drive for some of my favorite games..(in fact i recently bought a game off ebay that was on 5 1/4 disk) ------------------
No signature required.
Posted by jrh1406 on Jul. 05 2000,00:41
I have two 5.25 floppys for my c-64, and while cd-burners can be 133t, they'll never make floppy drives obsolete, are you really going to go through all the trouble to burn a 1.3 meg file to a 600 meg cd just to move a file over to a computer that's not on your network?
Posted by rig_hater on Jul. 05 2000,01:15
even though i never use the floppy drive doesn't mean i'm going to get rid of it. we still need them for making up disks for our programming assignments at school.------------------
PEBKAC: Problem exists between keyboard and chair.
Posted by Happyfish on Jul. 05 2000,01:45
But almost ever computer now has internet access.
Just upload you 1 meg file to a public site or email it. Floppys are on the way out, I can't remember the last time I used one.
Posted by jrh1406 on Jul. 05 2000,03:04
Not every computer has internet access, and out of those, how many of them have high speed connections? it's still faster to pop a floppy in a drive and transfer a file than do download it at even 56k.
I've been using mine alot recently because i just moved and it's taking the cable company a bloody long time to hook up my cable.
Posted by rig_hater on Jul. 06 2000,01:41
for some of our courses, we're required to hand in copies of assignments on floppy though, regardless of the internet presence. not everyone has the access so it makes it unfair for those who don't.------------------
PEBKAC: Problem exists between keyboard and chair.
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