Ask a silly question ...

As you may or may not remember, my job involves me speaking to IT manufacturer's technical support desks. Some of the people I speak to are experienced, well informed and competent. Unfortunately, there are also those who merely read from the script provided by their call logging system. A perfect example (techie-english translations provided):

My user reported that their new PC was not recognising that there was a hard drive installed. When you switch a PC on it does a bit of a check - it's like waking up and thinking "Arms and legs? yes. Senses? yes. Memories? yes. Good".
A PC checks to see what is inside itself and attached to itself. This particular PC didn't think that it had a hard drive but in fact there was a hard drive installed. Therefore, my user and I came to the conclusion that the hard drive was broken! Cutting edge stuff this :o)

So, I rang the manufacturer and explained that the hard drive was not recognised so it would need to be replaced. Here's where it gets fun:

Tech: I need you to do a self test on the drive please to verify that it is faulty.
Rhea: I've already told you that the hard drive isn't recognised by the PC.
T: Yes, I know but to log this call I need you to do a self test.
R: [sigh] ok, would you explain to me how I do the self test.
T: You need to turn the PC on and go into the BIOS, choose self test and then select the hard drive.
R: So, now could you explain to me how I should carry out a hard drive self test if the hard drive is not recognised by the PC?!

Unfortunately, this poor soul was not getting it so I had to finish the call and re-dial, hoping that I would get through to someone who had an ounce of common sense.

It's quite worrying at times as these are the people that are supposed to support end users. I knew that what he was asking was impossible but I wonder how many non-technical users he'd driven to distraction by asking this silly question.

Family Forensics

You may have heard of the show called Family Forensics which is being shown on Living TV.

The idea of the show is that you invite a team of forensic investigators into your home to profile the family, etc.

Now, why on earth would anyone do that?

I thought I would give it the benefit of the doubt and watch an episode. This week, the mother had invited the team in. The rest of the family only found out that morning just before they were taken away for the weekend. The twin daughters were very shocked with one of them having an anxiety attack whilst driving away from the house.

It was interesting to watch the team work gathering finger prints and fibre evidence. I was a little uncomfortable when they started examining knickers and sheets for 'biologicals'. But seeing one of the team pouring through the girls' journals made me feel very uncomfortable.

I have issues with this sort of snooping-tv as I have had experience of a family member invading my privacy with some emotional consequences. This had a direct and lasting impact on me, making it less likely for me to open up to people and also leading me to be very possessive and protective about my personal stuff. This was compounded by similar issues with an ex-boyfriend.

Thankfully Hubby was understanding and accepted my need to feel that certain things were private. With his help, I've been able to chill out a bit about this.

The de-brief at the end of the programme brought some powerful things out into the open that they would then have to work on as a family. But as a reserved Brit :o) I have to wonder whether a TV show is the best place to discuss the emotional dynamic of a family.

I've not yet been able to fully forgive the invasion of privacy that I experienced and I have to wonder whether those two girls will have similar feelings.

Control Arms

I have recently signed up to the visual petition to request greater control of the arms trade (www.controlarms.org). I received the following text in my sign-up e-mail so I'm going to politely request, if you are interested in this sort of thing, that you pop on over to the site and sign up.

(Note: you don't have to use a photo of your face, some people have taken a photo of their hand or a placard, etc.)

'Amnesty, IANSA and Oxfam have just launched a global campaign aiming to stop gun running and control the arms trade - and they need your support now.

Armed violence wrecks lives by fuelling conflict, poverty, and human rights abuses. The campaign is calling for an international Arms Trade Treaty which will make it harder for arms to get into the wrong hands.

Your support will help us to show that people - like you - around the world are outraged by arms trade abuses, and demand tougher arms controls. Simply go to: the Million Faces petition.'

Thank you.