Things and such

[altivo]

Just got back from a post-sunset trip out to the barns because Gary was sure he was hearing a horse whinnying angrily or in fear. He thought it was Tess, but it wasn't. Fortunately, she was asleep and we woke her up, but she still didn't whinny at all. She just made little snorty and grunty noises which is what she always does to greet me when it's dark in the barn. I made up to her and apologized for the disturbance, and Gary shut the back sliding door. I guess he thinks a fox might sneak in that way and eat her. XD The whinnying was from somewhere more distant, perhaps two or three farms away.

Spent way too much time today with a library user who was upset that his laptop wasn't working with our network. After he badgered the staff at the front desk badly enough, they called me out. As always with these situations, he was convinced that our network setup was faulty because his machine wasn't working with it. I explained to him that he had to accept address and router assignment via DHCP, but of course he had no idea what that meant or how to do it. I won't touch the configuration on anyone's laptop, or advise them on what to do because I learned long ago that it's a sure way to be blamed for every problem they have for the next year or more. I pointed out to him the fact that two other users were working away without any difficulty, but that didn't convince him. Finally he called his own office networking person for help. (Evidently he didn't even own the laptop, it was borrowed from work.) The network support guy started in with how our network was defective or the cable he borrowed from us was defective. I swapped the cable, but it made no difference. I pointed out again that he was probably trying to use a hard coded address that wasn't compatible with our public subnet. Finally the support guy walked him through checking the network configuration (not easy, because the guy hadn't the least idea what he was doing and kept getting lost in the wrong place in the menus.) I was right, of course. He was hard coded to use a particular IP address and router, and that was never going to work on our network. They changed that to accept automatic assignment and the problem went away. All this took about 45 minutes of my time, because he wouldn't let me leave until it was resolved.

Mind now, this point and click guy who had never even seen a command prompt before was getting free internet access from us. He doesn't have a library card, lives outside of town so he pays no taxes to support us, didn't even own the computer he was using, and was offered free use of an ethernet patch cable for as long as he needed it. Yet he thought he was being ill treated because we didn't "fix" things for him immediately...

I contend that this is rather like demanding that the waitress at a restaurant diagnose your stomach problems and provide free treatment. I'm sure this macho and very much type A personality guy would sneer at a woman who drives a car around but doesn't know how to check the oil or where to put in the gasoline; yet he is doing the exact same thing with that laptop. He doesn't know the first thing about how to set it up or how it's configured. When he gets back to his office and plugs it in or (more likely) slides it into his desktop docking station, he's going to be upset all over again because it doesn't work there any more (since he has erased his network access and routing information in order to get it to work on our network.)

Of course, Windows does provide the ability to have more than one configuration depending on your current locale, but certainly he doesn't understand that and apparently neither does his network support guy. Yeesh.

Spinning silk on the charkha. This isn't something I would have considered until very recently, but I need to spin a few hundred yards of fine silk thread to ply with that Mongolian cashmere. The charkha being convenient, I tried it. Holy cats! It really works well. Fine as sewing thread, and probably stronger. Takes a little adjusting to get it drafting right, and then it just goes.

Comments

[heavens-steed.livejournal.com]

I'm sure this macho and very much type A personality guy would sneer at a woman who drives a car around but doesn't know how to check the oil or where to put in the gasoline; yet he is doing the exact same thing with that laptop. He doesn't know the first thing about how to set it up or how it's configured.

Oh too true, too true. I've known guys who have sneered at those very things. It's amazing that many of these same guys will learn everything about the inner and outer workings of a car engine but for some unfathomable reason, thorough knowledge of a machine like a computer is only for nerds and losers. I don't quite get that.

And I'd like to be greeted by cute grunty and snorty horse sounds in the morning :)

[atomicat.livejournal.com]

Ah the instant gratification mind-set. I'll just tell them to do it and poof, it will be done. I think people like this should run into a few long hard and heavy problems in their lives that cannot be avoided and cannot be solved with anything other than long tedious exacting intricate work requiring an immense amount of patience.

[schnee.livejournal.com]

He doesn't have a library card, lives outside of town so he pays no taxes to support us, didn't even own the computer he was using, and was offered free use of an ethernet patch cable for as long as he needed it.

Given all that, why allow yourself to be occupied by him for that long? Trying to help him out is the right thing to do, of course, but once it becomes obvious that a) it's him/his laptop that's the problem and b) he's an asshat, I wouldn't waste more time on him - it's not like you owe him anything, after all.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

It wouldn't bother me except that he seemed to think it was his constitutional and god-given right to use the computer even though he didn't know a thing about how to do it.

Yeah, the snorty noises are cute. It seems to be a mare thing, the boys do a sort of whispery, throaty nicker instead. I know I'm doing good as long as she greets me that way rather than with the ear-splitting whinny that seems to mean "All right, who's in charge here anyway?" ;p

[altivo.livejournal.com]

It wouldn't have been so bad if he were even trying to understand the issue, but no, he was more like an infant demanding to be fed immediately.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

You're entirely correct. But if I hadn't wasted my time on him, he would have continued pestering my colleagues and eventually made a huge angry scene. We've had it before.

[schnee.livejournal.com]

*noddles* Wait until he throws a temper tantrum and then ask him to leave the premises... and, optionally, call the cops if he doesn't. Maybe not entirely practical, but it would be quite satisfying, wouldn't it? ^^

[altivo.livejournal.com]

It would be satisfying if it worked. The other pests we've had like that seem to come back again and again, like they are hoping to find a new person they can badger and bully into giving them what they want.

Like the guy who sits in the parking lot and calls on his cell phone to rant about how we should open the doors for him outside of regular library hours "because he pays taxes."

Or the one who can't understand why he only gets the same number of minutes per day as everyone else for use of a public computer, because "he's trying to run a business here." (Well, then, buy your own computer and take a tax deduction, jerk.)

[schnee.livejournal.com]

*noddles* I don't suppose there's a way to permanently ban folks like that, is there?

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Not really, no. We can call the police if they start getting too rowdy, and usually they have no library card so many services are unavailable to them anyway. Technically, we have no legal obligation to offer any service whatsoever to someone who doesn't have a valid library card, if not ours then a card from another library in the state. Enforcing that is just too unpopular though and makes us look really bad. People make it out to be the equivalent of child abuse or worse.

[schnee.livejournal.com]

Yeah... but it wouldn't be "we won't provide any services to people without a library card" as much as "we won't provide any services to people who've proven time and again that they're entitlement bitches and asshats"...

[soanos.livejournal.com]

This is almost http://notalwaysright.com material. I mean, really... You should have told him that his computer is broken and he should have borrowed a different laptop, as that one is not compatible with your network/is too old to work with yours. :)

I have to admire you, though. You managed to keep your calm all this time. *nuzzles and neckhugs*

I am looking forward to see the cashmere. Zebra pattersn would be nice ;)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

There's a difference between what is legally permissible or possible and what may be a desirable action when you need to retain the good will of most of the user population. ;p

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Probably no zebra cashmere because it's all natural colors. The cashmere is "goat" brown and the silk is cream colored. Because the two will be twisted together, the overall effect will be a sort of deep beige tone.

Keeping my cool with these idiots is part of the job. Afterwards I go back to my desk and pound something. Or make fun of them online as in this case.

[schnee.livejournal.com]

Yeah... as I said, maybe not entirely practical, but it would be quite satisfying. :)

[soanos.livejournal.com]

Latter case sounds like spreading the fun. No smashing pretty horsie head to the desk, either.

Deep beige zebra pattern... I can still see that working. :)

[damnbear.livejournal.com]

Sorry sir, your computer is not compatible with our Token Ring network. You need to get a Timex Sinclair PAL to NTSC adapter.

Thank you, have a nice day.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

More like his brain is not compatible with the real world. But that's his problem, I can't fix it. ;p

[soanos.livejournal.com]

You can always try... *hands over a beef tenderiser* :)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I suspect the problem was that someone else had already used that on him. XD

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

I have uber respect for people who take an interest in how whatever they use works :)

But as to the twit, the library staff here would basically have told him politely to get stuffed ;) You're too polite for your own good. *chuckles*

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, if we did that (and I agree it's all he deserves) then he'd be out there campaigning to have the library tax repealed or something, even though he doesn't pay it. If his neighbors proposed joining the library district and paying annual taxes to get library service, he'd be against it and very loud about it. Of course, he might behave that way anyhow, but why take the chance of making it worse.