in reply to Strange Coding Tales

Strange Coding Locations ... hmmm
Not really coding as such but I once had to spend about an hour talking someone through configuring disk arrays while stood on top of a mountain during a skiing trip. Some slightly strange looks from the other people around :)

But today you took me walking, Through a land that we have lost,
While our children sit at websites, With no access to the cost

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Re: Re: Strange Coding Locations
by Louis_Wu (Chaplain) on Oct 21, 2002 at 22:13 UTC

    What impresses me is that you remembered enough to be helpful, even though you couldn't see what was happening. I do that with my family all the time, though not at that level: usually "OK, go into the Control Panel and find Printers, open that, find the one you want to print to, right-click, and select 'Set as Default'."

    At least your battery lasted. :)

      I wish I had a penny for every time I've ended up doing that :)

      I think the worst time was when my sister's boss found out somehow that I worked in support - he used to get her to phone me saying she had problems with her home PC. It started off with simple stuff like setting up printers, installing sw etc but it ended up with trying to get me to talk them through setting up Access db's and similar stuff, always with her on speakerphone and this guy rabbiting away in the background - in the end I got her to put him on the phone and told him my hourly rate - strangely enough I never got another call from him :) and I could go back to not dreading my sister's calls

      But today you took me walking, Through a land that we have lost,
      While our children sit at websites, With no access to the cost

        That sounds like college, a friend of a friend asks you to help his friend's girlfriend with her computer. Everyone's always really nice, but you don't get much out of it - the problems are never challenging, the people are pretty much strangers who you never see again, and you spend an hour fixing the mistakes others have made while 'helping'. Oh, well, "kindness is it's own reward".