A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch
Forrest Gump said, “Stupid is as stupid does.“ Could this mean that an intelligent person who does stupid things is still stupid? Everyone has heard the stories of the computer user that used their disk player as a coffee cup holder. Did you hear about the computer user that called tech support trying to figure out why their computer wasn’t working? Turns out there was a power outage. When you Google “stupid computer stories” you get about 6,660,000 hits. No matter how you look at it, we’re talking about a lot of stupidity.
Lately, I think I might be the number one stupid computer user on the planet. Recently, I had a problem with Microsoft Outlook. None of my e-mails were being downloaded. I thought it was probably a Suddenlink problem. When I checked e-mail with a web browser program, my mail was on the server. Outlook just wouldn’t download it to my computer. With my typical “smart” thinking, I was sure I could solve the problem without calling tech support. I searched the internet an found no answers. After three days of frustration, I solved the problem by accident. After a download with Outlook, there was once again no e-mail in my in box. Then I accidentally clicked on my deleted items folder and there was my e-mail. It turns out that I had created a new mail rule. I mistakenly caused it to transfer all of my mail to the deleted folder. I keep Outlook set to empty the deleted items folder whenever I exit the program. For three days, I was downloading and deleting all of my e-mail.
Avast anti-virus recently recently released the Version 7 upgrade to their program. Whenever I install software, I’m really careful about reading the EULA and carefully inspecting the install boxes. Sure enough, the installer had an option to install Chrome and make it my default browser. Of course, the boxes were checked. No problem. I’m “smart” and unchecked them before installing. I’ve got several computers, so you can probably guess what I did on the third install. When I rebooted the computer, I had a new default browser.
Oh yes, I’ll admit that I did it. I broke the number one stupidity rule. I clicked on a link that I shouldn’t have. Luckily, I have a good firewall and no harm was done.
Not too long ago, one of my DVD drives quit working for no reason at all. It turns out that there was a reason. When I installed a new hard drive, I unplugged the disc power cord to make it easier to reach the brackets. I don’t know why I forgot to plug it back in. Another easily solved stupid problem.
I’m going to keep looking at the bright side of computing. At least I haven’t broken any ports by forcing the cables in upside down – yet. I also haven’t deleted any important files – yet. I haven’t spilled coffee on my keyboard – yet.
One last stupid thing I’ve done. It’s not computer related, but if you ask me, I’ll tell you how my being “smart” at a local convenience store almost resulted in a fight.
Thanks for reading.