OSDev.org

I thought I would start a thread about the most stupid things we've ever heard an ignorant person say...
It doesn't have to be funny but it helps.
Mine:
A friend asks me if i can upgrade the ram in his laptop.
I said yes and he says: "You wont need a soldering iron will you?"
Jules

I had a friend who deleted all the stuff on his hard disk because he thought it would slow down his computer if he didn't.

Someone that I don't like: "I am very good at programming in C and C++, but I don't like ending all my procedures with an 'end' statement."

Someone else (In a shocked voice): "I reformatted the registry, and now my computer wont boot!"

-JL

I can get pretty angry with people who say that Wikipedia has not merit whatsoever, and then, at the same time, say to use Google to find references on the web. It's somehow as if a resource viewed and edited by thousands is less accurate than a resource edited by a single person.

Yeah, I know it's not funny, but I don't particularly care.

even when I hold the cd in my hand the computer wont boot from it...

I wasn't there myself, but I heard this story actually happened:

"The installation cd won't boot no matter what I do. I think this isn't well prepared at all, I mean, I even had to cut off the edges to make it fit into the floppy drive - now you call this user friendly?"

I can get pretty angry with people who say that Wikipedia has not merit whatsoever, and then, at the same time, say to use Google to find references on the web. It's somehow as if a resource viewed and edited by thousands is less accurate than a resource edited by a single person.

Yeah, I know it's not funny, but I don't particularly care.

That argument is usually given by essay writers, and in some respects they are right. My girlfriend (an ardent English/History student) tells me this all the time:

If a book is written by one person, then you should be able to pick up on the bias of that person and interpret accordingly.

However, if something is written by multiple people, the bias is less likely to be consistent, leading to difficulties in working out what's true and what's an exaggeration on either side.

Wikipedia is undoubtably fantastic at looking up *facts* though, like "when did this happen?" or "what is that?", just it's considered bad practice to use it in the bibliography of your essay

JamesM wrote:

... Wikipedia is undoubtably fantastic at looking up *facts* though, like "when did this happen?" or "what is that?", just it's considered bad practice to use it in the bibliography of your essay

I don't think it's just a bad practice but it is unacceptable to use it in your essays. Maybe that's just for Masters students in the UK but none of the academics in my University accept Wikipedia as a prominent academic source of knowledge and we are not allowed to use it in bibliographies and references But this is off topic here so I'll stop talking now.

Ah, come on, be flexible. Dig one level deeper - most Wikipedia articles come with bibliography...

XCHG wrote:

JamesM wrote:

... Wikipedia is undoubtably fantastic at looking up *facts* though, like "when did this happen?" or "what is that?", just it's considered bad practice to use it in the bibliography of your essay

I don't think it's just a bad practice but it is unacceptable to use it in your essays. Maybe that's just for Masters students in the UK but none of the academics in my University accept Wikipedia as a prominent academic source of knowledge and we are not allowed to use it in bibliographies and references But this is off topic here so I'll stop talking now.

You are working under the mistaken assumption that I actually write essays!...

Not my experience personally, but there's a ton of this sort of stuff here:

http://www.rinkworks.com/stupid/

Thankfully not too many people around me are computer stupid. The worst things I've heard are people referring to the entire computer or monitor as the modem.

i lobe thi one:

Tech Support: "Ok, let's put your operating system disk in the drive."
Customer: "Ok...which way does it go in?"
Tech Support: "The shiny side faces down."
Customer: "Alright...um...which way is down."
Tech Support: (rolling eyes) "Towards the floor."
Customer: "Ahhh...so what way does the other side face?"
Tech Support: "Are you kidding?"
Customer: (outraged) "Hey! I'm not a computer genius, ok? That's why I called you!"
Tech Support: "Ok, that side faces down too."
That kept her occupied for a couple of minutes, while I told my colleagues what was happening and we had a good laugh.

6) Tech Support : "What type of computer do you have?"
Customer : "A white one."
Tech support : ******_____# ###

Tech Support : "What operating system are you
running?"
supposed to be computer genius guy : "Pentium."

this is the best one


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