A Little More Doctorow

I thought I'd post a link to Cory Doctorow's recent Cambridge Business Lectures talk on "Life in the Information Economy". It's a really interesting talk about security online as well as the inherently flawed nature of regulation.

On the Issue of Troubleshooting

As someone who works for tech support, and someone who has recently been doing a lot of trouble shooting regarding technological problems I don't necessarily understand, this small quote from a Chicago Tribune interview with Cory Doctorow really resonated with me:

"Do you know who Don Norman is? Norman and Jakob Nielsen are co-owners of this big user-interface firm. An important Norman book was called "The Design of Everyday Things," essentially a jeremiad against designers and in favor of engineers. He repudiated it 20 years later in a book called "Emotional Design." He starts from a premise that all technology is inherently broken, that at a certain level of complexity everything is nearly not working. Our capacity to make it work is entirely dependent on our ability to be calm, take a deep breath, feel good about ourselves and work out what the answer is. And that has a lot to do with our relationship with our technology, and it s a kind of feng shui arrangement with our technology, and he says that’s why beautiful things are more functional. So I’ve become a Normanist."

This really does make a fair and excellent point. It is not what you know or what you don't know, it's not what you supposedly can or cannot do, it is patience, calmness and resilience that allow people to solve computer related problems. I am of the school of belief that if you simply take a deep breath and see the issue at hand no as a sinister technomological doohicky problem and rather as an actually problem solving issue you will go a long way to making these issues solvable.

Because I constantly am talking to people with computer issues at work, I've really begun to understand the 2/3 of the problem is overcoming your own innate fear of the unknown. People so often will, even subliminally, say to themselves "Oh, it's technology, I'll never get it," whereas if they simply rallied the information they knew and used common sense they would be able to fix many daunting problems themselves. I know this, because I am constantly dealing with problems and issues I have never seen before, know nothing about, and do not understand. When this happens, I close my eyes and remind myself that I am capable, that people made this technology, and that there is no reason I shouldn't be able to figure out what is going wrong. 9 times out of 10 I am able to fix my problems, and the skills I learned go into helping me with new problems when they arise in the future.

Recently I've found that young people (and by young I mean 18 and below) are having more and more computer related problems, similar to the sort that "old people" might have. These problems are generally related to connecting to the internet, getting email configured, browser troubleshooting etc. After a conversation with a good friend of mine, we arrived at the conclusion that perhaps younger internet users grew up in a time when they weren't constantly HAVING to troubleshoot. If all you can remember is broadband, then why on earth would you generally have to configure things? If your parents knew how to do it and have always done it for you, why should you yourself know or care?

To me, as someone who has been dealing with computers on one level or another for over 15 years, this was sort of stunning. Like I said, I'm no wiz at all, almost all of my friends are more skilled than me. But like our grandfathers knew how to fix a leaky faucet and our great-grandfathers knew how to dig a cellar, I take it for granted that there are troubleshooting things that I know as inherent truths. And I also know that with common sense, deep breaths and concentration, anyone can know what I know. It just never occurred to me that the next generation might know less than I.

I can't know for sure if this is a coincidence or the beginning of a trend, but I DO know that the advice offered above is sound and it should be heeded by anyone, no matter how experienced or inexperienced with computers they may be.

The Root of the Problem

Today I was sitting at work, waiting for phone calls from unfortunate souls with computer troubles, when I got a call on my own phone instead. My caller ID said it was my mother. I've been recently trying to do everything short of whoring myself out to get out to Seattle for PAX this year, so I wondered if she had some insight on the situation.

Me: Hello?
Mom: Hey I didn't think you would pick up at work. I just had a quick question.
Me: What's up?
Mom: Maggie and I were wondering if you could bring GTA when you come home this afternoon.
Me: I'm sorry, I can't. It's my roommate's game remember? I don't live with him anymore.
Mom: (disappointed) Oh okay then. Sorry, I'd forgotten.
Me: You're welcome to buy it for me if you like!
Mom: Oh sure, I'll get right on that.

This exchange just amused the heck out of me. Quite a few weeks ago I'd gotten my roommate at that time to lend me GTA 4 for a few days. My mother has always enjoyed watching me play video games, and with memories of my sister's drunken warthog handling still fresh from the previous Christmas, I thought everyone might get a kick out of it.

I'd underestimated what a hit it would be. Myself, I've never been overly fond of the GTA series, but this one from what I'd seen, really seemed different. I'd actually enjoyed the protagonist and wanted to try it out myself. I had no idea that, from drunk pedestrian pancaking to republican space rangers my mom and sister would really enjoy it as well. I'd thought they would get a kick out of it, sure, but I didn't really expect to get a request for me to bring it back.

Thinking about this really makes me laugh after all the Jack Thompson-Hillary Clinton "Video games R bad" crap that surrounds each GTA release- those staunch arguments that games like these are the root of evil in our society, refuge of delinquents and the gateway to a lives of murderous rampages and crime. And yet, as a rational person who, on a good day, has no desire whatsoever to mow pedestrians down on sidewalks with an oil tanker, I have derived hours and hours of great entertainment out of this, with my mother and sister laughing with me.

I think the majority of people in this country need to get a grip and learn to laugh at the ridiculous. Perhaps they may even have to learn how to reinterpret what the "ridiculous" is, but it should really be clear that these games aren't the seed of Satan here.

Some days my job is great

One of my coworkers just came up to me:

Him: "Were you just working with a Lori ***** regarding symantec?"
Me: [hesitantly] "Yes..."
Him: "She wanted me to transfer her to you, but she has a message for you."
Me: [concerned] "What would that be?"
Him: "She says, 'You're the queen.'"

AWESOME.

What does this look like to you?

Are they lighthouses? Because that's what they're supposed to be...

Awesome.

On Sandwiches and Being Nice to People

Often times when I work at my tech support job, I will get lunch from Subway. It's close enough to be reasonable ("Hey guys I'm going to run to subway, be right back") but far enough away to have an enjoyable walk in the sun and a refreshing break from the incessant glow of fluorescent bulbs and computer monitors.

I've noticed, in my pattern over the past few months that a new girl got hired at our Subway and she will occasionally be in the queue to make my sandwich. When she does, the sandwich is always neat, and she doesn't do something crazy like load it up with 2 gallons of mustard- it always tastes pretty good.

Well today, before lunch, I'd been chatting with a friend of mine and he had reminded me of PostSecret, a really neat website where the blogger asks people to send him postcards with their secrets on them and he anonymously publishes them. I read a bunch of them, got hungry and went to Subway.

On my way there I was thinking about all the little things people have in common- the things we think about that seem private, but really they are just things that everyone thinks to themselves. For instance, whenever I go into the cinderblock basement of the building I work in to get a soda, I always wonder if an atomic bomb will explode and I will be saved because I had the good fortune to be in a bunker. Now, even to me that seems strange, but I assume that people all over think of many similarly bizarre things all the time.

All of this was going through my head when I walked into the Subway to see this girl waiting to take my order. I ordered my sandwich and watched her judicious application of my sandwich components when I suddenly blurted out:

"This may be strange, but I work nearby and I just thought you should know that you make a pretty good sandwich."

She looked up with a bemused expression.

"I mean to say, that a lot of people put too much mustard on, or whatever, but when you make the sandwiches they always taste pretty good. I hope you don't think I'm psychotic now."

She laughed and said she was glad I'd said so and that it made her feel good.

Now I am hoping that she actually did feel good and that she doesn't think I'm some sort of sandwich psychotic killer, but I really do think it was a good thing to say. We always come in and do our jobs and we don't talk to each other about things or mention that "Hey, I don't know you or anything, but this is something good you've done." and I can't help but think that maybe our lives would be slightly improved if that happened more often.

Ah well. At least I've got this tasty sandwich.

Arghhhh

Overslept/ didn't hear/ forgot to set(?) my alarm this morning. Late for work= less money= no food= vagrancy= dying young in a work camp.

On the other hand: these blueberries are delicious!

Customized my twitter page, if blogger was allowing me to reinstall my twitter widget (ahaha, that's fun to say) it'd be easy to get to from here.

Next step: customize blog. But it doesn't seem nearly so easy as the twitter. Hopefully I will be mistaken.

Sweet Sweet Sellers

Peter Sellers does his version of A Hard Day's Night delivered in the style of Lawrence Olivier performing "Now Is The Winter of Our Discontent."

Wherein Molly undertakes a great journey and is rewarded

It's been a while since I made an actual post. Quite a few things are/ have been afoot, so I think I'll take some time and talk about what's been going on.

This summer has been extremely rewarding. I ended up taking 8 credits of courses, only put a chisel through my hand ONCE (oh relief print-making, you joker, you...!), made a good amount of money and managed to get a trip to Washington DC in.

The trip was particularly harrowing. Since my plane's tragic collision with an extremely large air pocket over Japan 2 years ago I've been extremely un-fond of the whole air travel experience. However, not the sort of person to let fear rule my life, I've been traveling by planes in effort to conquer this problem. I was ill-equipped, however, to deal with the RAGING THUNDERSTORMS over DC, and as we were forced to circle over head for an hour I contemplated a great many things, including the ground, and how many pieces my body might be in when we next met.

Finally the plane was diverted to Pennsylvania, which meant another 3 hours of waiting followed by another jolly take-off and another jolly prance down Thunderstorm Lane. I'd like to say I'm a better person after it all, but I'm rather more inclined to say the fruit of that labor may be more along the lines of an ulcer.

DC was fantastic though. Having been there to visit my father a number of times, I don't normally do the whole monument thing, but this time I took a day and hit them all on a long walk. With the current political spirit it was really quite moving going to each one (apart from the actual walking, which was also moving, one might say, ba-dump shh!) and thinking about the great things and the not-so-great things that people have done in the name of the United States. Seeing the monuments really helped remind me about the things that make this country unique and wonderful, and the fact that those things aren't gone yet, not as long as there are still Americans who can believe in that dream. This election is going to be a fork in the road, and I believe the decision we make here is going to have some strong historical significance for us all - I hope at least this time we can choose well.

The flight back was much better and I arrived home in one piece, so all's well that ends well. Since then I've been working to earn a little cash in hopes that I can get out to PAX. I've never been, but I would so like to go. Money isn't stopping me, but unfortunately I've got no place to stay and sadly, every hotel I can find is pretty much booked. So barring a miracle I may not be able to go after all. I suppose there are other years but... well, I would be disappointed to miss it.

Here's looking forward to a day off tomorrow!

Finally.

I got the three Patron Saints cleaned up and in their final versions.

At least until I decide they need tweaking...

It's true...

Sometimes finding directions online really does screw you right up the keester.

Click the pic if you're in the mood to be amused.

Just Another Compelling Reason to Lay Off Meat

People ask me why I don't eat red meat anymore. THIS is why. I'm begging you. Look at this article. This stuff is real and it's scary.

Sweet Jesus.

The Continuing Battle For Net Neutrality

Looks like Comcast was rebuffed by the FCC for trying to dictate to it's internet subscribers where they could and could not go online. Sickeningly even a landmark win isn't a real win these days, and Comcast is already on the rebound twist the FCC's words and calling cavalry in for round two.

Read the article here:

http://www.freepress.net/node/42937