[ale] [Fwd: New users and laptops shaken, not stirred]

[griffisb at bellsouth.net]

> 
> From: Dow Hurst <dhurst at kennesaw.edu>
> Date: 2003/11/03 Mon PM 12:25:46 EST
> To: Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts <ale at ale.org>
> Subject: Re: [ale] [Fwd: New users and laptops shaken, not stirred]
> 
> Good description!  I get tired of trying to remember what the name or 
> button under some Windows variant is when helping those using that 
> stuff.  I will take WinXP over WinMe for stability though, but, heaven 
> help me if I have to actually try to walk someone thru fixing XP.  I can 
> deal with Linux, IRIX, or Win98SE since I know them.
> 
> I hate it when people download crap stuff to run and then call for help 
> when the machine gets screwed up.  Hey, did anyone ever read the 
> newsgroup that was unix sysadmins talking about "lusers" in derogatory 
> ways?  I found it long ago when discovering UseNet but lost the name and 
> never tried to find it again.  It was hilarious to read though.  Later,
> Dow
> 
> 
> Geoffrey wrote:
> 
> > BruceG wrote:
> >
> >> Just got a call back.She got it started again! And here is a horror
> >> story. If any of you have young children, have them leave the room. She
> >> turned the laptop upside down and shook it. Shook it a little more,
> >> listening for rattles. Then powered it up.
> >
> >
> > Ah yes, 'etch-a-sketch' troubleshooting....
> >
> 

You gotta love "etch-a-sketch trouble-shooting", that goes into my terms to remember. It was a pain helping trouble shoot. Downstairs I have a Debian box with command-line interface only (and love that old beast of a box). I installed RedHat on my work laptop. It dual-boots between Win2K and RH9 (RH is supported and encouraged in some communities at work, cool! But all PD is self-help or newsgroup help only). My SuSE desktop was upstairs and offline. Still haven't run a cable yet.

Hopefully next time will be easier. Maybe I'll test out the SuSE LiveEval CD. That should help.