It was one of those weeks last week at Hackaday’s home office. My mother-in-law handed me her favorite power bank and said “it’s not charging”. She had every expectation that I’ll open it up, desolder the weary pouch inside, scrounge a LiPo out of some corner of the basement, and have it back up and running before the weekend. And of course that’s what happened, although maybe it looks a little worse for wear because it was hard to open the sealed case without excessive force. Sorry about that!
Then on the weekend, I finally got fed up with the decomposing foam on the face seal on my FPV goggles. It was leaking light all over the place. Of course I could have bought a new seal, but then I’d have to wait a week or so for delivery. So I pulled the velcro backing off, tossed it in the bed scanner, pulled the image up in Inkscape, converted it to Gcode, and cut out a couple seals out of EVA foam on the laser. Not only are they essentially indestructible, but I was able to customize them a little bit, and the fit is now better than ever.
And then, one of our neighbors bought a new garage door fob, flipped the DIP switches into the right configuration, and couldn’t figure out why it wouldn’t open the garage door. Knock knock knock. Using the tried-and-true RF probe that everyone with a scope probe has sitting around, namely hooking the ground pin to the tip and putting the radio device in the loop, it was clear that the sense of the DIP switches was inverted from what it said in the instructions. That was a fun little puzzle.
It was the garage door opener that triggered me to think about how normal people would handle any of these situations. “How do the normies even get by?” were the exact words that went through my head. And let’s face it: we’re not entirely normal. Normal people don’t have a soldering setup just sitting around ready to get hot 24/7, or a scope to diagnose a garage door RF transmitter at the drop of a hat. But these things seem to happen to me all the time. How do the normal people survive? Maybe they all know someone with a scope?
I take it as my service to the world to be “that guy” for most of our friends and family, and I pretty much do it without complaint. “With great power” and all that. My wife is just about as gracious when she’s stuck debugging a parent’s Windows setup, so I’m not saying I’m the only saint in the world, either. Surely you have similar stories.
But last week it made me reflect on how good we’ve got it, and that does make me want to pay it forward a little bit. If you’re one of the people who can, try to help out those who can’t.
My condolences to those supporting family and friends through the Windows 10 EOL.
windows 10 ?
I am still on windows 8.1 for the lone required windows PC. Otherwise it’s all FreeBSD of course.
I just shipped my brother a TPM and pages printed from his motherboard manual PDF.
At least hopefully not consoling anyone who actively used the AOL dial-up service that just shut down (other than for pure nostalgia)
We survived end of Windows 8.x
We survived end of Windows 7
We survived end of Window Vistas
We survived Windows ME
We’ll be fine. Windows 10 won’t crash or refuse to boot because Microsoft ended support. People would be on their own if the computer were still connected to the internet and new exploit is found.
Windows 10? We’re already using Windows 98 here!
Win 11 is not that bad, just bypass the CPU and TPM check and mount the 11 DVD in the right-click menu and run the upgrade installer. It will ask you to accept the unsupported update. (It’s really just arbitrary nonsense because the 6th-9th gen Intel were practically the same, some were even the same silicon, and I have 5th gen systems with TPM 2.0).
The real trick is de-bloating it to turn off the ads and widgets.
Command to use (Chris Titus Tech’s Windows Utility):
irm “https://christitus.com/win” | iex
When I got tired of answering my late brother’s calls for help with Windows, I converted him to Ubuntu, and, later, Mint. Calls went from 1 or more per month, to maybe one a year. He was totally computer illiterate, but managed just fine with Linux (after a short adaptation period). The secret was buyimg him a new HDD, pulling his Windows drive out, and telling him he could have it back if Linux didn’t work out. He used Linux happily for about 10 years until his death.
Did he commit suicide from being tired of dealing with terminal? 😂 People who use linux usually go bonkers, like Stallman for example.
Also, you can “upgrade” to Windows 10 IOT for a few more years of support, great for (the few) 32bit machines you don’t want Linux on.
I find that the existence of “that person” is exactly why I’m reading hackaday. I’m pretty much here to educate myself about all these things that us common people, wouldn’t understand otherwise without “these persons” ! Blogging is a way to share and educate people from their qualifications. It passes on good knowledge.
But there is an ailment that has befallen me, which “normies” go by unaffected: Lots of the stuff (tools / test equipment) that I have gathered will not be used daily and needs some fixing before you can take on the job at hand :)
FAM: “Can you fix my slow laptop? It keeps crashing and is very slow”
ME: “OK, so your kids installed software piracy tools which come with viruses”
FAM: “Kids say you are wrong, they’re younger and know computers better”
ME: (DOES NOT SAY “when I were your kid’s age, I had a job. And the job was with computers. “)
ME: “They’re right. All I know are Macs. You’ll have to bring your computer to one of those stores that will clean it up”
FAM: “But that will COST ME MONEY”
ME: “I only know Macs”.
FAM: “Pffft! MACS are a overpriced junk!”
ME: (DOES NOT SAY “I drive a 20 year old Toyota Corolla, and you’re on your THIRD BMW. Are you really suggesting I don’t understand practical value?”)
ME: “Sure, are but Macs are all I know”. And I repeated this for 11 years since.
They make sure I overhear though “We had to buy the kids laptops again this year, Microsoft let a virus on and all the software on it “expired”. Fixing it would have cost half of a new laptop.”
People use the cop-out “but you’re smart” as a way to not Google and learn. They presume your time has no cost to you, and that you genuinely enjoy fixing things (in the same way they enjoy binging trash TV).
Techies need to show tough love, and say no or feign ignorance.
That ignorance angle only works when the ‘normie’ isn’t smart enough, or doesn’t know you well enough to know it isn’t true. And saying no just isn’t as easy as it sounds if its going to get your Mother/Wife/Husband/etc nagging at you often as to why you are solving the problems you want to solve but won’t solve theirs or their Mothers/Sisters/etc – usually easy enough to just fix it and saves you so much more grief in the long run.
Or tell the example person to choose if he/she wants to believe their kids or you, and then take the computer to the chosen one to fix. A little bit harsh, but the person was harsh first, when implying the kids understand more than you.
Oh in that script I’d just say on line 4 – “well why bother me with this if you already have a ‘solution’ you accept!?” most likely. As if they want my help, probably for ‘free’ they had better be willing to actually accept it.
So depending on just how helpful that “FAM” has been themselves or how far I believe they would go should I ever actually need help they are capable of defines the level of patience I’m willing to go looking for – they would either get that first response in frustration at the entitled assumption they have earned my help for nothing, or the ‘Fine leave it with me, I’ll fix it, then once you are satisfied send the Kids to me to learn how to do whatever caused the issue properly”
But that still doesn’t solve the problem of nagging from the family member that knows you could fix something and have chosen not to in general.
I agree exactly with what you say, just one more take: sometimes people just don’t know how much work fixing this one problem is. They might think it’s something simple, but in reality you need to spend several hours fixing it. If something will take time, tell them how much, you might ask if they would trade some of their free time to you in exchange.
I’m afraid my line would be, “The kids know computers better than me. That means they will be able to fix it.”
The kids saying they know computers better is like someone saying that, because they live in their house, they are better qualified to do plumbing and electrical repairs than a plumber or electrician. Or, because somebody drives their car every day, they know more about it than a mechanic.
Similar stories from me except I do say. If they want my time/effort/knowledge/experience(for free) then they can damn well have my admonishments too.
Similar with askholes: “What phone should I get?” then they buy some PoS and need help? No GTFO.
Ahaha! This is sooo true, that’s literally me!
Thanks for this, cheered up my evening.
Entirely agree with the different OS excuse.
My relief when all the family got iPhones and stayed with Android (I have Google Pixel, so a quite decent phone).
Now I just can’t be of much help.
But people figure it out somehow
The article is right but fails to acknowledge one thing: we’re also enablers of these behaviours.
If we were not around, they find alternatives, just as you quote people buying new laptops every year -> this is a twisted point though, because commercial shops really take advantage of those who don’t know. That’s unethical.
+1
At one point in life it’s better to simply pretend to others that you have moved to Linux or Mac and are nolonger up-to-date when it comes to Windows things.
It doesn’t even implies lying so much, if you simply adapt your own perception of yourself accordingly. ;)
I think that’s the most peaceful way to get out of the affair.
“If the kids know more, let the kids fix it” would be my instant response. Get up and walk away without another word on the matter
Semi related, UX designers and engineers for mainstream smartphone apps and especially smart TV OS/app UIs, need to do focus groups of over-60s. My parents constantly struggle with smart TV UIs, and honestly, I am sometimes too. Wildly inconsistent UIs (sometimes swipe up to reveal more, sometimes click in, sometimes neither …), sometimes not clear where the cursor is (especially for those with less than stellar eyesight), multiple text entry bars that are ambiguous (looking at you Apple TV).
The old Verizon cable box system from like 2010 was the perfect UI for TV watching: consistent, clear UIs and dedicated remote buttons that always did the same thing.
Indeed, smartphones are awful and I really hate being asked by all the extended family that actually use the darn things way more than I do how to do something because its so unclear. I’ll still figure it out fast enough, but its so frustrating. The smartphone is so often less intuitive than the VHS taperecorder ever was, and those things spawned jokes on their complexity for a reason…
12:00
–:–
12:00
–:–
…
But at least you could still put a tape in and hit PLAY!
Don’t get me started on modern UI design, it’s absolutely awful.
I recently repaired a VHS recorder/player, and watched tapes that had been in the garage for almost 20 years, a real buzz from the past, especially the advertisements.
I recycled my old computer for my parents to access Juno Mail. (Anyone remember that?). Even though my mom couldn’t spell WWW, they hooked it up to dial-up internet. I had streamlined MSIE by getting rid of the “Go” button, since all one had to do is hit enter. It wasn’t until Mom called up with a support request that I realized why that was there: “I’ve typed in a website, now what do I do?”
:facepalm:
Disregarding all the other flaws of MSIE, Microsoft at least had done focus groups with over-60s when they built it.
I shut off the taskbar search box in Windows entirely. Because you simply press the Windows key and start typing.
Sony made a line for kids called ‘My First Sony’. When looking for electronics for the grand parents etc.. my dad and I used to joke that Sony should also make a ‘My Last Sony’ with the same ease of use…
Now (30 years later) he makes the joke on himself
My wife, a clinical psychologist, can remain in business ONLY because she is married to “that guy”. I agree with all those who wonder how normal people survive.
I accept the the challenge of helping friends and acquaintenances because A) It’s just good manners, B) her friends make VERY good iced chocolate brownies, and C) It keeps me up to date on how normal people use technology.
My day job is deeply embedded / industrial data acquisition / control: My “happy place” is in front of logic analyzers and oscilloscopes, so I really don’t have daily interactions with normies’ use of technology.
I find lots and lots of gadgets thrown away at the dump, they’re in the “battery disposal” pile. I take them home, some of them work out of the box, and some of them I have to open up the case and goose the battery above the minimum voltage to get the charger working again.
And some of them I simply have to replace the AA batteries.
This is how normies survive: when something doesn’t work, they throw it away and buy another. It’s astonishing.
I dragged a 4-channel 200 MHz oscilloscope out of the dumpster at the makerspace and plugged it in and it didn’t work right… because it was set to a weird mode. Setting switches and pushing buttons on the front panel put it back into normal mode, and now I own a 4 channel (better) oscilloscope.
Purchased two very expensive 600 watt 13.56 MHz generators on craigslist for thin money, both work, were sold because the units made a weird sound and the owner was afraid they would self destruct. Replaced the fan and the scary sound went away.
I haven’t purchased a new computer in ages, I simply go to the dump and look through the ones people throw away. I can usually find one there with better specs than the one I’m using, about every 5 years I do this. Linux runs very fast if you don’t let your system get gummed up with malware. (A friend, who is a professional EE designer with a modern system, has commented that my home system compiles things much faster than his.)
This is how normies survive: when something doesn’t work in a way they don’t understand, they throw it away and get another one.
It’s astonishing.
Normies just buy new stuff way more often than needed, and get scammed on shitty maintenance contracts and insurances.
That is how they survive
Look at the average person and then realize that half the population is less intelligent than that.
Idiocdracy is my nightmare. It turned out to be an instruction manual. I dread going to bed some nights.
as another commentator already said: normies simply throw stuff away and buy new stuff. my parents’ neighbors got a “broken” phone from other neighbors, who bought a new phone for her 13yr old daughter and I was the designated person to “just fix the old one” when I visited. turns out every Astrology website on this planet was allowed to send notifications in the Chrome APP…
Factory reset for phones. If possible flash a debloated stock OS. If not then connect it to a PC running universal android debloater and let it disable the built in apps. Useless stuff like Samsung store and Facebook, Microsoft Office etc. https://github.com/0x192/universal-android-debloater
I am also “that guy” to a bunch of people, and each of them has asked the same basic question – “what do other people do when they don’t have you to call?” Sounds like the answer is also the reason why the thrift store is flooded with functional electronic goodies I can grab for pennies on the dollar.
This is an oldie but goodie that always comes to mind when I think about being “that guy”: https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/in-which-i-fix-my-girlfriends-grandparents-wifi-and-am-hailed-as-a-conquering-hero
I am “that guy” for most of my family and many friends. It was a very busy stretch of years when Windows 7 came out. I had a few older couples at church that I helped routinely and my standard fee was homemade peach cobbler and vanilla ice cream.
I’ll take the normie who gives up over the Dunning Kruger poster child who knows nothing but tries to fix stuff anyway.
I just replaced the shell of a broken Molex connector which would have been a 5 minute job had someone not pumped an acorn-sized blob of hot glue into the chassis in an attempt to stabilize the connector.
Who didn’t get started by taking something apart that first time and not being able to put it back together after.
BTW, did you know that isopropyl is a very good release agent for hot glue?
Isopropyl mixed 1:1 with vodka is also used to cure methanol poisoning. It prevent body from absorbing methanol so it can be expelled with urine. Side effect is it makes you totally drunk – but in hospital it’s okay, they give you plenty of vitamins to stay alive.
Being that guy… Why do you actually think that is not normal?
It’s normal for me. Those other people, it takes them way too long to catch up.
The issues you describe I call a grandma problem. After I’ve gone through some of the intricate guesses/fixes for software and things i’ve fixed, I wonder what my grandma would do, if she got a thing I’ve just figured out. There ought to be a grandma in every QA dept on the planet.
I use grandma, here, because she is the only one in my family, that I’d want to help and is not vieing for pecking order or pushing out emotional blackmail/guilt.
And besides her cookies are the best.
Should they? Our species has diverse habitats. If members of the species are not able adapt to the harsher enviroments of hard and unforgiving technologies, I thought that nature and evolution was supposed to find a way to remove them from the gene pool, or force a migration of the inept tribes into a different environ having reduced use of technologies.
Was Darwin wrong? Is there some reason that the ignorant should be allowed to thrive in a technological society?
I fix my neighbour’s computer.
She sets me up with delicious fruit and repairs my sweater. She is “that guy”, just in other fields of expertise.
In fact, quite a lot of people are. We have one guy in our building who is in the HOA board, rarely does active work but remembers where to find minute details about repair jobs done in 2004. Which saved us literal hundred thousands of euros. Not a sexy skill to have, but very useful to have around.
A friend of mine is … Well let’s say useless for anything like this, but give it to him to organise a nice evening out in the town. Very useful for my mental wellbeing!
Myself and most of my friends are That Guy. It’s why we’re friends. I’m “that guy” at work in some ways and I can’t just ignore when people ask me stuff they should know better. So I play nice. But I’d also say the amount of ignorance tracks almost 1:1 with inability to recognize the value of other peoples’ time needed to sort out your situation.
.
Then I remind myself I’m a grown up and if I’m average, half the people around me are dumber than me anyway and I’ll never fix that. I’d guess many of the people I work around probably think I like them just fine when I really …. don’t. I think a lot of people around me probably extend ME the same courtesy. So my job is mostly pleasant.
Oh, and the answer to the question asked in the headline?
They know “a guy” :-)