PEBCAK calls

[Banthor the Unruly]

I prefer the term ID-10t (idiot) errors. And I have quite a few in my current job. To be fair most of the people in my area have a good 20-30 years on me, so they did not really have much of a chance to learn this stuff when they were young. I am also a technophile and sometimes I forget that not everyone else is as well. They are always very polite, and so am I. Like I told one of them when he over heard a phone call I made to get directions early so I could simplify them even more, "I'm not upset, I'm not angry, but you people do not know what the hell you are doing. And that's ok. Thats is why I'm here."

Never mind that every month I have to tell at least one person how to attach a file to an Email and send it.

I also have an old track ball that I decided to retire. So ironically, I now use it at work. It is (I think anyway) clearly setup to move the ball with your thumb, but it is kinda funny to watch others try and figgure it out when someone has to use my computer.

Here are a few noteworthy ID-10t errors:

"I shut down my computer and now it won't come back up"
"did you press the power button?"
"the what now?"

-A little while later the same guy came to me saying his monitor was dead. Guess what was wrong with it?


"Do I have to move each file separately?"
"Do you know how to make a box?"
"no"
"Hold down the left mouse button and move your mouse over the files you want. a box will appear from the starting point to the current position of your mouse. anything in the box will get selected. You can then move them all a once."
"I don't get it."
"Ok here let me show you, <makes a box>"

- The scary part about this is that they actually had to teach that in a one of my college classes.

"My computer is frozen, I started (a corporate application), but nothing happens when I click the buttons"

- I go look at their machine, they are looking at a screen shot of the main menu in a help file. You know the prank where you take a picture of someone's desktop and make it their wall paper? Well, he did that to himself.

I also take someone whine at me about having to use another piece of software
for a training class. I told them (several times) there was a two hour on-line course they could take that would explain everything and make the project go a LOT faster. They told me they did not have time for that and just wanted to get it over with. Some instead they spent six hours tiring to work it out on their own, instead of taking a two-hour class and spending another hour on the project itself.

[technical.angel]

At least you bothered to look it up. Too many people wouldn't even do that...

And that's what we count on!

[TheShabz]

odd. ive always used the acronym as PEBKAC. between keyboard and chair. i think it sounds better. but whatever floats your boat.
Id-10t is my fav though

[Andara Bledin]

odd. ive always used the acronym as PEBKAC. between keyboard and chair. i think it sounds better. but whatever floats your boat.
Id-10t is my fav though

Ditto to all of the above.

^-.-^

[Captain Trips]

Avoid confusion: use "PICNIC" error types. (Problem In Chair, Not In Computer)

Or the old standard of I-D-10-T

[Nekojin]

I read the opening post and understood the general meaning of what you posted Horsetuna. However being the computer-illiterate (at least the technical aspect of them ) person that I am I had no idea what the word PEBCAK stood for. I decided to let google, once again, educate me. It was as if a light was turned on when my search revealed that it was an acronym for Problem Exists Between Computer Chair And Keyboard. Suddenly everything you said became crystal clear.

Strictly speaking, it's supposed to be PEBKAC, not PEBCAK. That way, it's Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair, which puts the punchline on the final word.