Sbam! Crunch! Smash! Trash! Isn't fixed yet?
Ok, this is not a "tale" for real, is more of a rant that came from the abyss.
Electronics aint' really a "new" thing, vacuum tubes and the like existed since the beginning of '900 and even before we had telegraphs and electric light, but is from the end of WWII (that is a good 70+ years ago by now) that these weird stuff called Transistors began to spread like some kind of aliens monsters from a sci-fi movie, and with them a vast amount of devices like radios, recorders, tvs and, last but not least, computers.
And today, everything you touch has some sort of electronic in it, from the basic toaster to the latest version of "smart" screen (that so smart ain't anymore after the latest marathon of Game of Throne).
But what set all of that together is that they are, indeed, ELECTRONIC devices and as such, they have very few (if any) mobile parts in them. And this set them apart from mechanical devices where most, if not all, the "useful" bits are gears, levers and so on.
And the major differences between those classes of devices is that if you look inside a mechanical device, with a bit of intelligence, you can figure out how it works. Gears can only move in one way, and when they move, you can follow the direction and understand what it does. An electronic device however... without a full set of complex instruments, and the knowledge of how to use them and where, is as incomprhensible as a piece of modern art.
Unfortunately, given their distribution, very little of our modern technology is "purely" mechanic, and even that little is getting progressively more "cybernetized", with the obvious result that everything around us is getting more and more complex and out of the reach of the "common human".
And after this short introduction, let's talk a bit about this new "race" of primates: the "common humans". That is all of us more or less. Let's face it, even who is used to handle computers and different devices every day, is not very "expert" in the intricacy of the internal function of most modern technology. Unless you have a PHD in Electronic Engineering and spend your time desiging CPUs and Microprocessors, and probably even if you do, most of the commonly used electronic is a "black box" that you have no intention or interest in opening up.
As long as it works of course.
And when things do not works, Nature takes its course.
Let's take, for example, a random CL that is confronted with a device (from a printer to his brand-new lapdog) that, for any reason, is not doing what it's supposed to do, What happens?
That the first reaction of the CL in question is, usually, to plant a full hands on the aforementioned device, most of the time repeatedly and with increasing force. The result is usually one of two: 1. nothing happens or 2. the device completely stop working (suprise!).
And this brings to ME, just a few days ago, when I had to pick up a printout from the office's printer, and I found the printer peeping that there was no toner anymore. I turned around and walked to the office supply stash and was back in a few minutes with a brand new toner under my arm. When I reached the printer I found CL that was punching on the control panel with discrete force, and then, not receiving any result, slammed the printer with several ton of force, causing the side panel to open up in protest. Panel that received another slam for good measure.
Me - WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?? ARE YOU COMPLETELY STUPID?
CL - IT DOESN'T WORK!
Me - Of course it doesn't! Did you read the panel's message?
CL - What?
Me - The thing you are slamming like a decerebrated monkey!
CL - No.
Me - OF COURSE YOU DIDN'T! Now why don't you go somewhere else and let me work?
CL - I need a print!
Me - And breaking the printer is your solution?
CL walked away muttering something, I replaced the toner, closed up the printer and it started working again, luckily with no secondary effect after CL's "intervention".
But this has left me with a doubt: what the fuck was he especting to obtain from that behavour? The printer is a device, it doesn't understand and certainly it doesn't react to violence (please, keep your smart-ass comments to yourself), if it is not working, breaking it doesn't help (again: keep your smartass comments). If the problem is a "bad contact", slamming it at random doesn't fix it either so... ??
Davide
04/11/2019 11:07
