• (cs)

    There is a problem with comment programme on the frist button. Please advice?

  • Drew (unregistered)

    <obnoxiouslyLargeFont>MY COMMENT IS NOT WORK! PLEASE ADVICE?"</obnoxiouslyLargeFont>

  • Joel (unregistered)

    That Chinese man is my new hero.

  • (cs)

    That second one reminds me of when people talk louder to someone with a foreign accent. It's as if speaking a different language is the same as having a hearing impairment.

  • Mike (unregistered) in reply to Drew
    Drew:
    <obnoxiouslyLargeFont>MY COMMENT IS NOT WORK! PLEASE ADVICE?"</obnoxiouslyLargeFont>

    Can you please repost your comment more clearly?

    CAPTCHA: minim - minimal minimal

  • Forumtroll (unregistered)

    that angry yelling man had windows 95 installed 7 years ago back in 1999?

    I smell fish here!

  • getofmymetriclawn (unregistered) in reply to Drew

    Your filthy blog destroys my Text!IS NOT WORK! PLEASE ADVICE?"</obnoxiouslyLargeFont>

  • bencoder (unregistered) in reply to Forumtroll
    Forumtroll:
    that angry yelling man had windows 95 installed 7 years ago back in 1999?

    You misread. He bought the computer 7 years ago, then another company installed windows 95 SINCE then. That seems reasonable.

  • Spudley (unregistered) in reply to Forumtroll
    Forumtroll:
    that angry yelling man had windows 95 installed 7 years ago back in 1999?

    I smell fish here!

    Right. Because it's not implausible at all to buy a computer in 1993 and then upgrade it to Win95 two years later.

  • Anon (unregistered)

    Comment not work Urgent need button press this not pricing supply you no pay now else

  • (cs)

    Is it just me... or does that last story fit Swampy to a tee?

  • schmitter (unregistered)

    Ah, nice, unmarked occupied buildings. I like to tell those I visit that they are lucky I am just the computer repair guy and not an ambulance driver.

  • My Name? (unregistered) in reply to Drew
    Drew:
    <obnoxiouslyLargeFont>MY COMMENT IS NOT WORK! PLEASE ADVICE?"</obnoxiouslyLargeFont>

    No need to send your Windows95-machine to our 99.9999mls-away location.

    Your Caps-button is on. Turn it off and all your trouble is solved!

  • (cs)

    Sitting here reading TDWTF in a browser with Zoom set to a fairly high level so I can actually read the text (my eyes are particularly sucky today), I think I might understand what Mr. Chang was trying to do.

    It's possible (but admittedly not likely) that he thought the original poster couldn't read the text in his message because it was displaying unclearly onscreen, not that the content was incomprehensible. So, naturally, he re-sent it in a large, bold font to make it physically clearer.

    If this is the case, I can imagine him sitting there at the other end, going "WTF?!?!? If you can't read the text, increase your font size, dummy!". Is there an http://www.thedailywtf.cn?

  • Anonymous (unregistered) in reply to RobFreundlich
    RobFreundlich:
    It's possible (but admittedly not likely) that he thought the original poster couldn't read the text in his message because it was displaying unclearly onscreen, not that the content was incomprehensible. So, naturally, he re-sent it in a large, bold font to make it physically clearer.
    Has Captain Obvious changed his screen name?
  • (cs)

    The Chinese guy should have answered Brendan's unhelpful question with a simple "No" -- obviously he couldn't state the problem more clearly; his English is poor. Perhaps eventually Brendan would have started to understand he needs to frame his question more helpfully; maybe "Which button are you referring to?" would have worked better.

  • (cs)

    On that third one... I sympathize with the storyteller... customers like that make me want to take their computer in... and fix it with the heel of my boot.

  • (cs) in reply to frits
    frits:
    That second one reminds me of when people talk louder to someone with a foreign accent. It's as if speaking a different language is the same as having a hearing impairment.
    In some ways it is. It's hard to tell the difference between two similiar sounding words. Being slow, and overemphasizing every syllable helps me hear the word. Outside of dealing with foreigners/children-unfamiliar-with-the-word the only time "slow" and "overemphasizing every syllable" are used are with speaking louder. Since most people have at least a decade of experience speaking louder before they need either other option. Hence, their brain thinks of them as interconnected. Even understanding that, it's hard to force yourself to do.
    Anonymous:
    Has Captain Obvious changed his screen name?
    No.
  • Anonymous (unregistered)
    I can imagine that you'd have the faintest idea what he was talking about... but don't worry, neither did I

    I re-read that about five times

  • More Clearly (unregistered) in reply to Mike
    Mike:
    Drew:
    <obnoxiouslyLargeFont>MY COMMENT IS NOT WORK! PLEASE ADVICE?"</obnoxiouslyLargeFont>

    Can you please repost your comment more clearly?

    <moreClearly><obnoxiouslyLargeFont>MY COMMENT IS NOT WORK! PLEASE ADVICE?"</obnoxiouslyLargeFont></moreClearly>

  • Anonymous (unregistered) in reply to Spudley
    Spudley:
    Right. Because it's not implausible at all to buy a computer in 1993 and then upgrade it to Win95 two years later.

    How is he right if you're saying the opposite thing? Your sarcasm failed you. :/

  • BillT (unregistered)

    Problem Supply - ah, in a way it's good to see an American get a taste of our method for dealing with language problems. If you're not understood, just speak louder.

  • (cs) in reply to Qyn
    Qyn:
    On that third one... I sympathize with the storyteller... customers like that make me want to take their computer in... and fix it with the heel of my boot.
    That's one way. I'm more inclined to fix the customer with the heel of my boot.
  • Stephen (unregistered)

    TRWTF is that the IT guy logged in for some random guy and then left.

  • Anon (unregistered)
    and he accused me of working for "Satan and his minions"

    So you're saying you don't work for Dell?

  • Chip (unregistered)

    That's what I just love about users. Even though you're there to fix an ERP problem, they won't hesitate to pre-empt you for an hour and a half to help them fix their report (i.e. do their work for them).

    After all, "You know computers, right?"

    I finally came up with a response. "You know books, right? Because I have some questions about quantum entanglement..."

  • (cs) in reply to BillT
    BillT:
    Problem Supply - ah, in a way it's good to see an American get a taste of our method for dealing with language problems. If you're not understood, just speak louder.

    Oh, it's not just an American thing. I once heard a great joke about a Spanish guy visiting the US and trying to communicate this way, but unfortunately it wouldn't make sense in English. Suffice it to say that Capt. Obvious has it right; this is basically a human nature thing.

  • Jeff (unregistered)
    There is a problem with supply programme on the button. Please advice?
    I actually got a better trouble report from my three-year-old. She knew to click on her "duck" icon and type her password to log in. But there was a little problem:

    "I made too many letters on my duck." (Fat-fingered the password.)

    I showed her the backspace key.

  • Roberto Delaterra (unregistered)

    I suspect Mr Chang used computer-translation... the chinese result of which might have been something like 'make sentence more readable'

  • Brendan (unregistered)

    Solution advice not button use.

  • Me (unregistered) in reply to Stephen
    Stephen:
    TRWTF is that the IT guy logged in for some random guy and then left.
    Meh, the "random guy" had a visitor pass and was shown to the server room, TRWTF is they let him in the building at all, although, where I used to work we had a server that would call IBM itself and order itself new drives, etc. Was kinda creepy when they showed up and said "Your server called, got a drive about to go..."
  • (cs) in reply to GettinSadda
    GettinSadda:
    Is it just me... or does that last story fit Swampy to a tee?

    Nah, no mention of Aliens or his town council making changes to his shared content. Plus, he would never use Word. SSDS exposes the data Word can't, as he would say.

  • anonymous (unregistered) in reply to Stephen
    Stephen:
    TRWTF is that the IT guy logged in for some random guy and then left.

    There is more than one:

    1. The receptionist gave him an ID badge without actually checking to make sure he was supposed to be there (schools and government buildings come to mind).

    2. An executive asks a random guy, that she has never met and does not work for her company, to help her with a report (most likely confidential information).

    3. IT guy comes over and logs in a random guy using his credentials into their production environment with admin access and walks away?! Maybe I should go attempt this at a bank and see if I can get some CC #'s or format their drives.

    4. The support tech walks into the wrong building that is guranteed to have their company name somewhere in plain sight. Either on the building, on a wall/sign in the lobby or on his visitor badge.

    captcha: transverbero - a spanish speaking verb after a gender changing operation

  • Buffled (unregistered) in reply to Mason Wheeler
    Mason Wheeler:
    BillT:
    Problem Supply - ah, in a way it's good to see an American get a taste of our method for dealing with language problems. If you're not understood, just speak louder.

    Oh, it's not just an American thing. I once heard a great joke about a Spanish guy visiting the US and trying to communicate this way, but unfortunately it wouldn't make sense in English. Suffice it to say that Capt. Obvious has it right; this is basically a human nature thing.

    It would probably translate just fine, if you just said it louder.

  • (cs) in reply to Jeff
    Jeff:
    There is a problem with supply programme on the button. Please advice?
    I actually got a better trouble report from my three-year-old. She knew to click on her "duck" icon and type her password to log in. But there was a little problem:

    "I made too many letters on my duck." (Fat-fingered the password.)

    I showed her the backspace key.

    For some reason that reminds me of the QA report I got from one of our users: "Please remove pineapples from screen."

    Seems an uninitialized text field in the database contained a string of ðððððððð characters. Solution was to look for a value of all-eths and display "none" in its place.

  • luctus (unregistered)

    TRWTF is #3 having problems with Microsoft Word from Corel Office Suite.
    <sarcasm>Everyone knows that Corel Office Suite is famous for publishing Microsoft Word.</sarcasm>

  • dylansmrjones (unregistered) in reply to frits

    Re: Problematic Problem, Problem supply, and a Text-Destroying Problem 2010-02-25 10:53 • by frits That second one reminds me of when people talk louder to someone with a foreign accent. It's as if speaking a different language is the same as having a hearing impairment.

    Now, talking louder is NOT the right way to speak to a hearing impaired person (or halfdeaf or neardeaf or whatever you like to call us). The right thing to do is to speak clearly (well-articulated). Talking louder just hurts our ears and is generally frustrating.

  • (cs) in reply to Forumtroll
    Forumtroll:
    that angry yelling man had windows 95 installed 7 years ago back in 1999?

    I smell fish here!

    No, that man bought a computer in 1992, presumably with MS-DOS and possibly Windows 3.0 or 3.1, depending on when in 1992 he bought it (3.1 came out in 1992, iirc).

    At some point after Windows 95 came out - my guess would be between 1996 and 1997, because that's when the Windows 95 versions of Corel WordPerfect Suite came out - he had another company install it on the computer, along with Corel Office Suite.

    When he later had problems with the machine in 1999, he went back to the company he bought in from in 1992.

    It's not that complicated.

  • (cs)

    很抱歉打扰您了。有一个与供应问题的方案 按钮。请咨询？

  • Finn (unregistered) in reply to frits
    frits:
    That second one reminds me of when people talk louder to someone with a foreign accent. It's as if speaking a different language is the same as having a hearing impairment.

    Living in America, but being from a foreign country, I see this all the time. What is it with Americans' inability to deal with people on an international level? There's a lot of potential for misscommunication when dealing between countries. So you have to be aware of certain protocols and such. Here is where I see people the most oblivious.

    But then, how much can you blame Americans? It's not like Europe here where you have so many different countries, cultures, and languages so close together. Most Americans don't have a passport and are born and die before ever leaving the States.

  • rast (unregistered) in reply to 4merK0d34
    4merK0d34:
    很抱歉打扰您了。有一个与供应问题的方案 按钮。请咨询？

    COULD YOU PLEASE STATE YOUR PROBLEM MORE CLEARLY?

  • J (unregistered) in reply to Finn
    Finn:
    frits:
    That second one reminds me of when people talk louder to someone with a foreign accent. It's as if speaking a different language is the same as having a hearing impairment.

    Living in America, but being from a foreign country, I see this all the time. What is it with Americans' inability to deal with people on an international level? There's a lot of potential for misscommunication when dealing between countries. So you have to be aware of certain protocols and such. Here is where I see people the most oblivious.

    But then, how much can you blame Americans? It's not like Europe here where you have so many different countries, cultures, and languages so close together. Most Americans don't have a passport and are born and die before ever leaving the States.

    Wait, we leave the States when we die? Are you speaking physically or metaphysically?

  • ullamcorper (unregistered) in reply to hikari
    hikari:
    Forumtroll:
    that angry yelling man had windows 95 installed 7 years ago back in 1999?

    I smell fish here!

    No, that man bought a computer in 1992, presumably with MS-DOS and possibly Windows 3.0 or 3.1, depending on when in 1992 he bought it (3.1 came out in 1992, iirc).

    At some point after Windows 95 came out - my guess would be between 1996 and 1997, because that's when the Windows 95 versions of Corel WordPerfect Suite came out - he had another company install it on the computer, along with Corel Office Suite.

    When he later had problems with the machine in 1999, he went back to the company he bought in from in 1992.

    It's not that complicated.

    That explains everything except how his version of Corel WordPerfect Suite included Microsoft Word.

  • aliquam (unregistered) in reply to dylansmrjones
    dylansmrjones:
    Now, talking louder is NOT the right way to speak to a hearing impaired person (or halfdeaf or neardeaf or whatever you like to call us). The right thing to do is to speak clearly (well-articulated). Talking louder just hurts our ears and is generally frustrating.
    But it did make for recurring Garrett Morris skit on Saturday Night Live...
  • (cs) in reply to Finn
    Finn:
    frits:
    That second one reminds me of when people talk louder to someone with a foreign accent. It's as if speaking a different language is the same as having a hearing impairment.

    Living in America, but being from a foreign country, I see this all the time. What is it with Americans' inability to deal with people on an international level? There's a lot of potential for misscommunication when dealing between countries. So you have to be aware of certain protocols and such. Here is where I see people the most oblivious.

    But then, how much can you blame Americans? It's not like Europe here where you have so many different countries, cultures, and languages so close together. Most Americans don't have a passport and are born and die before ever leaving the States.

    What I have learned is that communicating in a foreign language teaches you how to communicate with a foreigner trying to use your language.

    I think a lot of people have very limited experience in having to cope in non-English speaking countries. Might be even worse in places like Japan.

    Try to speak without an accent, talk slowly, leave gaps between sentences for people to process what you just said, and articulate.

  • Eps (unregistered)

    Mo' money, mo' problems.

  • Anon (unregistered) in reply to Finn
    Finn:
    What is it with Americans' inability to deal with people on an international level?

    What is it with foreigners inability to speak English? Lazy bastards.

  • caper (unregistered)

    That explains everything except how his version of Corel WordPerfect Suite included Microsoft Word.

    Everyone knows that only Microsoft makes programs for typing documents.

  • (cs) in reply to Anonymous
    Anonymous:
    Spudley:
    Right. Because it's not implausible at all to buy a computer in 1993 and then upgrade it to Win95 two years later.

    How is he right if you're saying the opposite thing? Your sarcasm failed you. :/

    Maybe he wasn't being sarcastic. ;) He wasn't using the sarcasm font, for one thing.

  • Franz Kafka (unregistered) in reply to Finn
    Finn:
    frits:
    That second one reminds me of when people talk louder to someone with a foreign accent. It's as if speaking a different language is the same as having a hearing impairment.

    Living in America, but being from a foreign country, I see this all the time. What is it with Americans' inability to deal with people on an international level? There's a lot of potential for misscommunication when dealing between countries. So you have to be aware of certain protocols and such. Here is where I see people the most oblivious.

    But then, how much can you blame Americans? It's not like Europe here where you have so many different countries, cultures, and languages so close together. Most Americans don't have a passport and are born and die before ever leaving the States.

    1. this is not an american thing, they just happen to be the butt of the joke

    2. if you're in america, you should be able to see that we also have different cultures. The main difference is that you only really need to know english. Unless you're dealing with a foreigner, anyone that matters will also speak english (I'm sure someone will object to this, but it's 99/100 accurate)

    3. dealing with people in an international level (excepting canada) requires a change of 8 time zones for me. That combined with some places' penchant for not actually telling me that they have a problem, or fun stuff like "it doesn't work, please advise" means that there's plenty more than protocols to contend with. Really, it's not like crap bug reports are specific to one place.

    4. of course, you seal the deal with a dig at 'provincial americans', as though our 3 million or so square miles and 5 time zones are a homogenous group. Since you're here, take a month and travel around. It should give you at least a glimmer of the differences within the country.

    Sorry we don't get over there that much, but it's not like we're mobbed with euro tourists over here. I would imagine most French think that vacationing in cote d' azur or prague is just fine, thank you.

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