Road Rage on the Information Superhighway

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Lori
Posts: 865
Joined: Thu Sep 17, 1998 6:01 am

Road Rage on the Information Superhighway

Post by Lori »

Found the following article on CNN intereactive - having worked tech support before I could recognize some of the end-user frustration! Anyway - some of it's kind of funny...



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Road rage on the information superhighway
March 12, 1999
Web posted at: 7:41 p.m. EST (0041 GMT)

MARLBORO, Massachusetts (CNN) -- Smashing keyboards, shattering monitors and kicking in hard-drives; all methods high-tech workers increasingly employ to vent frustration in the workplace, according to an international survey released Thursday. The worldwide poll revealed that 83 percent of network managers found abusive or violent behavior by users against their computer systems.

"This rage is often a result of pent-up hostility," said business psychologist Dr. Wilfred Calmas, who interpreted the results of the survey conducted by Concord Communication, a Marlboro, Massachusetts-based network consulting firm.

"Some people choose to take out their aggression on inanimate objects in this case, their monitor, keyboard or mouse," he said.

According to survey respondents, the number one piece of equipment broken during an act of network rage is the keyboard. Mice and monitors tied for second place and hard drives placed third.

"I had a user who complained that her cursor would not move, so she would repeatedly slap the terminal on one side to move it," claimed one network manager from a research firm in New York.

Network managers attribute some of the network rage to a lack of basic knowledge about computers. For example, help-desk staffers reported users manually picking up a mouse and pointing it at the screen, or searching the keyboard in vain for a key marked "any" when instructed to "press any key."

A network manager in Wisconsin recalled when one of his associates in charge of PC network operations at a store complained that the floppy drive would not work. "After we called a technician to look into the problem, we found that hundreds of checks had been jammed into the floppy drive opening," he said. "It seems store employees mistook the floppy slot as a check slot."

The survey reported other equally amusing reasons why users called the help desk in a huff. A network manager at a manufacturing corporation in Oregon recalled an irate user unable to open files attached to e-mail. Over the phone, he instructed her to "right mouse click" to open.

That suggestion didn't do the trick. When he paid a visit to the user in person, he saw the words "mouse click" written repeatedly across the screen.

"You told me to write 'mouse click,' she protested. The network manager managed to stifle a guffaw.

The survey also pointed out that network managers face challenges when introducing employees to new software applications and advances in communication technology. One manager for a large insurance company encountered such a problem when introducing staff to electronic mail.

"I received a call from an enraged user who claimed to not be able to send e-mails," he said. "After I calmed her down, I asked to see a sample of an email message she was trying to send. The e-mail address included street name, town, county and full postal code."


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Moe Mensale
Posts: 148
Joined: Thu Sep 17, 1998 6:01 am
Location: Boca Raton, FL

Road Rage on the Information Superhighway

Post by Moe Mensale »

You mean there really isn't an "any" key?
Dakkon98

Road Rage on the Information Superhighway

Post by Dakkon98 »

NO!!!! Tell me there is a "ANY" key!!!
Please Dear higherpower tell me there is a "ANY" key!!
i find it once in awhile it seem to hide under the long key with no name on it. Hmmm i bet thats it!! The "Any" is that long key with no writing on it!!! It has to be you hit it som much the word "ANY" is wore off.
Thats it!!!
WHOOO HOOOO!!!!
YES YES YES!!! i found nirvanna !!!!

dakkon
Allen M.

Road Rage on the Information Superhighway

Post by Allen M. »

Huh. Huh? Did I see my name just posted with a new title? Mpeg. Moulton? OOOhhh. PC rage in a cage.

<CENTER>The PC Always Wins</CENTER>

PCs let you know right away that you are not perfect. And if you have an ego, forget it. Take it from a guy who has been designing software since 1971. Sitting in front of a PC, entering alpha-bits, just simply HAS to be the most excruciatingly frustrating event of all times. Even when you get it just right the first time (that happens too but seldom by me on this forum), there is a whole raft of hardware and other software waiting in the wings attempt to crush you into a limp piece of spaghetti dooming you forever. AARGGGHHhhh! Die a million deaths......

We are not the masters of the PC, never! Even I, yours truly, once pounded my beloved keyboard into submission with my fists watching the somewhat cubical keys fly everywhere. And then, with only a few unmoving ones left refusing to abandon their lair, I grasped that egg-white plastic geometric solid and smashed it over my knees into virtual submission as I repeatedly uttered the magic incantation: "TAKE THAT YOU @#$@#$@#$# @#$@#$ @#$^HOLE!" It felt so good beating it into submission teaching it to follow my every future command. Whew! I stopped the computer lesson only after I began to feel my knuckles throb with pain as I looked at my knee which had turned red and begun to swell under the twisted wreckage of what was formerly allowed my entry into this intellectual masterpiece stupidly staring back me. It felt so good to level the playing field with this PC, the one who had tormented me so, as I asserted rightful command until the realization that the one who was beaten into submission was not the PC, but the one it was controlling This thought emerged from the depths of dispair as I painfully straightened my left leg and hobbled forth to pick up the smashed pieces; little energy left to run a fist through the glass cage of the CRT or to raise a 12-gauge to watch the PC box, itself, dance merrily up and down and to and fro across the surface of the desk where it could not hide from any corrective activities. I was now completely exhausted and felt defeated only to begin anew the next day with renewed vigor.

***NOT*** a true story, but many feel like doing just the above sometimes. Watching the infamous Moulton Mpeg for the first time can illicit torrents of laughter, especially from those who have mentally been where they think this guy is coming from. He certainly appears to have attained a height of frustration imagined by few and realized by less.

Couple road-rage with PC-rage and there you have it. Coolly, calmly, collectively, and gently wrap that thing in a blanket and sneak it into the trunk of your car late some dark moonless night when no one is around to discover you. Drive to an isolated spot on a seldom-traversed highway. Stop the car. Open the trunk. Neatly unfurl the blanket and set-up the PC in the middle of the road in the same position it assumes on your office. Quietly tippy-toe back into your car, back it up 100 feet and just stare at it with your headlights shining directly at it blinding it from looking back as your tunnel vision blinds you from seeing anything else – no matter how unimportant. Start revving the engine. 3K, 4K, 5K, red-line it. Pop the clutch fishtailing forward leaving plumes of smoke as your rear tires struggle to gain traction as you strive to maintain 7K as you jam it into second, smoking the tires again, wildly approaching the intersection you completely forgot was there until, until? oh No. NO! Where did that Semi come fro... .<font color=red>

Allen - uechi@ici.net - http://www.uechi-ryu.org</font><font color=white>


[This message has been edited by Allen M. (edited 03-14-99).]
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