Just Really Dim

You know, sometimes, I feel like I go on a rant about people, but in my defense, this is my blog, and I'm in charge here, so there. Honestly, there is no better way to get something off your chest than to communicate about it in some way, so this amounts to therapy...in a way.

What I'm on about (this time) is the sheer bewilderment on y part about how some people manage to survive in our modern world. Yes, my job at present is one that is a little specialized, but what throws me for a loop is when people cannot handle or comprehend what should the simplest of concepts (relative to what they do). I'm not talking about the finite principles of writing a program or even working some of the finer intricacies of Windows (like the fact that right-clicking anything anywhere pulls up a relevant context menu ... someone's mind was just blown).

I give you two real world examples for what I'm walking about. First, logins and passwords. Everyone has a login for everything they do. Have email? You have a login. Have voicemail? You have a login. Have internet access? You have a login. With every login comes a password. Now, a quiz for you. What does a password do? Anyone? If you said, it keeps the login secure, you would be correct. If you said it controls the level of access for the user, I would look at you funny. Yet, on a very regular basis, I get asked this question. A lot.

You see, one of my specialties is making sure that our product that navigates Medicare's DDE system continues to successfully navigate said system. Part of my job is interpreting error messages. Very, very few of those messages actually relate to a bad password. Yet, it seems people ask with every other error they get if it is a password problem. One question: did it log in? If the answer is yes, then it is not a password problem. Real simple. I can't fathom where anyone would get the idea that a problem accessing certain data would be a problem with the password. Now, it's almost certainly a problem with the login and its individual setup with rights and such, but the password? Eh, never.

Honestly, who would be actively using a program, get an access denied error, and think, I must have a problem with my password? And on a pause, I have to admit probably a large number of people. *shakes head in dismay*

The other one has to do with people and the Internet. The first time I got onto the Internet was in 1994, I think. I was a late bloomer, I know. Don't hold it against me. There is one thing I've known about the Internet from the very beginning. It isn't on my computer. I have a program that I use to navigate through the world wide web, but none of the content is actually on my machine. This was back in the days where looking at pictures was almost out of the question. You wanted information, you got a text based page of info. If you wanted pics, you just run and grab and sandwich while that 350Kb pic downloads through your blazing 14400 bps modem. This is almost twenty years ago.

Yet, only a few days ago, I was speaking to someone and told her to go to a website we use for remote access. She said, "Oh, is that on the internet? I'm not sure it's installed on this computer." This is where I close my eyes and realign my chi with the universe in the hopes I don't say something to insult the questionable intelligence I've just encountered. After all, I'm not deal with a patient in a nursing home here. This is someone who works with computers (granted not in a technical capacity, but she has a job using them) every day. Here's a fun fact about Windows. If you have Windows installed on your computer, you have an Internet browser. It's integrated into the operating system. And if that computer can't access the Internet, there are a lot of things it shouldn't be doing right now that I understand it is.

Wow. Just ... wow.