Today I shall explain how dual monitors work using the medium of interpretive dance
- Reference: 1622791813
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/06/04/on_call/
- Source link:
"Jack", for that is not his name, is a member of that special breed tasked with hopping into a car and going wherever the cries of the users were loudest. He explained his job was "maintaining the 'Desktop Experience'" and required both the burning of brain cells and petroleum to deal with all manner of fails and failures.
One 130-mile trip was to deal with a complaint that "the Internet isn't working" only to find the network cable stuck to the top of the monitor. "When asked what they had been doing for the week, they said 'oh it's been working the rest of the week'."
[2]
Hmm. Plugging it in fixed the problem. "I can only suppose that they were browsing the cache files in the interim," Jack observed drily.
[3]
[4]
However, it is the call-out to fix the broken monitor set-up that stands head and shoulders over the usual nonsense. Jack had installed several dual monitor set-ups at customer sites before getting the call from a distressed user: "The monitors are not working."
Back in the car he went for another jaunt of three-figure mileage. At first glance, the screens looked OK. The power was on, the desktop was visible.
[5]
A small crowd gathered to watch him work his dark IT magic.
"As I moved the mouse onto the second screen," he said, "they exclaimed, 'How did you do that?!'"
Do what? It eventually dawned on Jack that the users were unable to grasp that the two monitors were actually showing one, big desktop. Despite his attempts at moving the mouse and shifting files around, the concept of the two-screen desktop remained utterly alien to the onlookers. In the end, he was forced to go down a slightly more practical path in order to drive the lesson home.
[6]
A physical desk was cleared and Jack piled everything in one place. He moved the pile to one corner. Then to another. And the penny, for some, finally dropped.
[7]The server is down, money is not being made, and you want me to fix what?
[8]Oh Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes-Benz? Detroit waits for my order, you'd better make amends
[9]Can't get that printer to work? It's not you. It's that sodding cablin.... oh beautiful job with that cabling, boss
[10]George Clooney of IT: Dribbling disaster and damp disk warnings scare the life out of innocent user
[11]For blinkenlights sake.... RTFM! Yes. Read The Front of the Machine
"Some of course couldn't handle it," sighed Jack, "and I wonder if their homes were the same, piled high with junk and letters with them sitting in an empty space in front of the TV..."
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[7] https://www.theregister.com/2021/05/28/on_call/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2021/05/21/on_call/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2021/04/30/on_call/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2021/04/23/on_call/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2021/04/09/on_call/
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Re: Laptop + Monitor = two computers?
You know the amount of times I've seen someone think the monitor is the computer is shocking. "It's on but not working". Then you show them the "box" and ask why they haven't switched it on. "Oh I didn't know I had to". Shine a light. I wonder sometimes how we ever got out of caves.
Re: Laptop + Monitor = two computers?
I've had this many a time. More recently I think it has been down to AIO computers and iMac things that people expect the monitor to be the computer.
Just don't try explaining that it is not a T.V., there be dragons.
Re: Laptop + Projector = two computers?
Just today, tried explaining that the laptop and the projector are the same computer, but with two working spaces(or desktops) I'm still waiting for the call back! It's Friday, hopefully it comes before noon!
Re: Laptop + Monitor = two computers?
I always thought that for dual monitor users, Apple should sell monitors that look exactly like their iMacs. Maybe with a small marker somewhere. Which would look good if you want to have two screens, which would let you pretend you have an iMac when you have a MacMini, which would let you pretend you have a Mac when you have a PC - and which would confuse the hell out of some people.
Maybe where other monitors display "no signal" it should display "this is a monitor, not an iMac".
Re: Laptop + Monitor = two computers?
Well you can use an iMac as a second monitor to another iMac...
Re: Laptop + Monitor = two computers?
You'll have heard that Arthur C Clarke quote about sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic? Turns out the level of advancement doesn't have to be that high...
Almost everybody seems to treat technology as magic. Get in the car, turn the key, and the engine starts. Magic. Walk into a room, flick a switch, magic happens: the lights turn on. Turn on a computer, point a browser at Google, get a search engine. Magic once again.
Technical folk such as the commentards here are the new magicians.
Which is fine, for now, until people recall they used to burn magicians...
IT managers were always the most difficult
Explaining anything to them, especially anything related to file systems, always seemed to result in blank looks. Most seemed unable to understand the difference between snapshots and backups but were gullible enough to believe everything the storage salesman told them. As if the salesman knew what he was talking about...
Re: IT managers were always the most difficult
As an IT manager (also only IT person in the business) I respectfully disagree. Marketing / Sales Managers on the other hand....
Examples...
I used to use a similar analogy for people who got confused between Memory and Hard drive space.
Usually after been asked by the Big Boss (my wife) to look at a friends PC that they bought cheap from PC world or something, I would suggest that it could probably do with some more memory to make it run a bit quicker. I would usually get the but it has 500Gb of memory...
So imagine you have a desk, and some filing cabinets
Your memory (ram) is your desk and your filing cabinets are your storage (disk)
some of the space on desk is used by your computer and screen and stuff so you don't have all the desk free
You pull documents out of your filing cabinets and onto the desk to use.
If there is no space on the desk you need to put the documents you are not using back into a filing cabinet.
The bigger your desk the more documents you can have on it at the same time.
You can have a huge filing cabinet but if you have a small desk putting all the things back and pulling them out again will take up time.
I find this is a useful explanation for non technical people like parents, friends and office managers, and is useful for them to buy the ram they need and stop bothering me
Re: Examples...
That's with people you like I assume?
For those I don't like I throw in things like flash RAM for SSD (nowadays) and video RAM, just to hear their anguished sobs.
(who am I kidding? it's *my* anguished sobs when I have to explain these)
Re: Examples...
SSD vs spinning disk is easy - spinning disk is your file cabinet, you can easily get things that are next to each other, but hunting around for different things is difficult, you have to open and close different drawers. SSD is like an enormous poster board, you can get anything from anywhere really quickly.
Re: SSD is like an enormous poster board,
I think, at this level of explanation, saying something simple like "SSD's are just a better sort of filing cabinet" might be safer.
Re: Examples...
Thank you! That's an *excellent* analogy that will come in handy!
Re: Examples...
I do something similar except using a kitchen as the comparison - the chef being the processor :-D
"they exclaimed, 'How did you do that?!'"
ROFL.
So, a couple of hundreds miles to teach those how to do dual monitors ?
Not sure the planet can cope with so much fossil fuel being spent for so low achievement.
We're doomed.
Qualifications before being allowed to use a laptop
Over the years I have become pretty certain that people should pass a simple exam before they are allowed near a PC. It would go something like this:
Can you can think and breathe at the same time?
Re: Think and Breathe at the same time
Blank look followed 1 minute later by a clunk as they fall off the chair
The Internet's not working
One 130-mile trip was to deal with a complaint that "the Internet isn't working" only to find the network cable stuck to the top of the monitor.
OK, it was probably only 13 miles but one day I got a call from the idiot a friend paid to man the phone. Quick check from home and I couldn't even get as far as the BT router.
So I dutifully drive down to take a look.
First thing I notice that it's awfully quiet where the idiots desk is. Now the desk is in the antichamber to the computer room.
I glace through the window in the door... nothing... This is supposed to be a computer room so full of racks you have to move things to get behind either row.
Now there's nothing.
Walking in I find the normally packed room isn't quite empty, the rack of my own personal kit is pushed into one corner where it can't be seen from the door, it's disconnected. The fibre from BT is strewn across the floor and isn't connected to anything. BT's router is propped against a wall at an angle and not plugged into anything.
I turn to the idiot. "So anything I should know?"
Oh yes, they came in yesterday to take all the kit away. Does that make a difference?
Some people!
I was recently sent this.
If you think people are smarter than previous generation... 50 years ago the owner's manual for a car showed you how to adjust the valves. Today it warns you not to drink the contents of the battery.
Laptop + Monitor = two computers?
I had a user who had a laptop and external monitor. It was beyond him to understand that he did not have two computers. I suppose having an external keyboard and mouse as well didn't help.
Still he was only the company accountant so you can expect much.