Help desk, how can I help you?

Have you ever found yourself playing help desk to your friends and family? I know I have on more occasions than I care to count. Now, as I’ve said before, I love to help but it can sometimes be very frustrating.

One family friend told me all about a phone call she got from Microsoft saying that there was something wrong with her Windows so she used her credit card to pay whatever it was. I cringed as soon as she mentioned the phone call. I did set her right, but it’s sooooo frustrating!

Another family friend needs clearly detailed written instructions on how to do just about anything on the computer. I still remember the day she asked if it would make any difference to her internet if she moved the computer upstairs. Or the time she worried about her files because she was going to get a new monitor.

Patience is clearly the key and I can understand why help desk operators start out on the assumption we don’t know much about computers. I’m lucky that none of my friends or family have been quick to anger either because I do know about the stories of abusive calls to help desk.

Are there any stories that have left you completely baffled as to how they came to a certain conclusion? Anything that makes you wonder whether or not people should pass a test before they’re allowed to buy a computer (like a driving test)?

Besotted by Wednesdays 15-02-2012

Bringing you things that have me drunkenly infatuated. Or is it infatuatingly drunk? Either way, it's things and places I love. 

For (probably a long) while, some of the links may seem like old news. This is because I currently have a backlog of pure awesomeness to sort through.

With tech trends changing so fast, it’s sometimes hard to keep up with them all. GeekSugar have put together a slideshow of what the best trends were for 2011.

Who doesn’t love playing Fruit ninja? Well, this won’t interest you then. For the rest that love testing their reflexes on random pieces of fruit, you can now buy Fruit Ninja plushies! Great for testing your abilities in your lounge room.

I came across the most wonderful sketch pad. It’s browser sketch pad so you can draft up your webpages! One of the best ideas ever in my book. There’s even a stencil you can buy to use on the sketch pad.

Do you ever think much about the future? What’s going to happen, how things are going to change. Well Michael realised that we only need to look to movies to see what’s supposed to be happening.

NY’s School of Visual Arts students come up with some amazing work and for those that are interested in seeing what’s they’re producing, they’ve created a free online magazine for us to flip through.

I love a broad range of music. On my MP3 player, you can find Aaliyah next to ZZ Top. Britney singing about ‘til the world ends’ right after Metallica tell me ‘blackened is the end’. It’s not just the mainstream songs that I listen to, you’ll also find parodies and wizrock. And now I’ve found another genre to listen to. GeeksAreSexy introduce us to bands who use or base their music on video games.

A simple reminder, that reading is not such a bad thing after all. Whatever format you may choose.

Besotted Wednesdays 30 Nov 2011

Bringing you things that have me drunkenly infatuated. Or is it infatuatingly drunk? Either way, it's things and places I love. 

For (probably a long) while, some of the links may seem like old news. This is because I currently have a backlog of pure awesomeness to sort through.

I love pictures from space. Every now and then I check out NASA’s website to see what they’ve come up with recently. Then there are the amateur shots that are impressive in their own right. Like this one who managed to capture a whole other solar system.

Still panicking over Christmas presents? I know I am! Geeks are Sexy have kindly provided us with another geek gift guide. 4 awesome ideas and one very disturbing one!

Hands up who still likes paper? Writing down notes, not having a screen glaring at you. Now, who likes itty bitty things? (Me!) Introducing, Little Printer. Wirelessly connecting with your smartphone, you can print out little ‘newspapers’.

We’ve been promised a lot of things that were supposed to happen ‘in the future’. Who else is wondering if we’ll have hoverboards in 2015? Wired gives us a list of a few things that we were supposed to have already compared to what we actually got.

Need a kids activity for the weekend? How about making some good old fashioned paper snowflakes? And introduce them to some Star Wars characters while you’re at it...

Looking for an alternative to the iPad? ASUS have brought out the Eee Pad Transformer Prime. GeekSugar give a rundown on some of its finer points.

Think you know your movies? Love puzzles? How confident are you that you can crack the code on these movie mashup posters?