No, it's not just a geek urban myth

[Jason Dunn]

<a href="http://web14.compaq.com/falco/detail.asp?FAQnum=FAQ2859">http://web14.compaq.com/falco/detail.asp?FAQnum=FAQ2859</a><br /><br />Wow. Thanks to Feo sending in this link that proves that some people simply shouldn't own a computer.

[DaleReeck]

I don't know what's worse - that the question even exists in their database at all or that it's "frequently asked" :)

[Sparkomatic]

That has to be some tech support guy's joke. Or, maybe people really do call in looking for that "ANY" key! :lol:

[Ed Hansberry]

No way was that meant to be serious. If you are too stupid to be confused by "press any key" you would be way to stupid to get your PC online and find this info out in the Compaq KB.

[Brad Adrian]

Just to be thorough, I searched for the other age-old question about how to get the "retractable cup holder" to work. I couldn't find anything...

[Kirk Stephens]

Hahahahahahahaha :lol: :rofl:

That is hilarious

[Pony99CA]

That's almost as bad as one of my favorites (possibly apocryphal) about the person who was told to dial "nine eleven" (911) in case of an emergency, but couldn't find the "11" key on the phone. :roll:

For more computer moron stories, check out Computer Stupidities (http://www.rinkworks.com/stupid). And, yes, if you look in the Keyboard section, it says many people have called looking for the "Any" key. :lol:

Steve

[JonnoB]

And, yes, if you look in the Keyboard section, it says many people have called looking for the "Any" key.

I can attest to the fact that this does happen... at least it used to. A little more than a decade ago (late 80's), I managed a technical support department for a then-large computer and peripheral manufacturer and on more than one occasion this call was made. In those days, there were fewer nerds like us and the DOS applications used 'press any key' all the time to progress a user through a process.

Sadly maybe, as computers became easier to use, it has only served to protect the computer inept from continuing to make these types of silly mistakes. They are still out there - just hidden among us and now call themselves 'CEOs.'

[Paul P]

http://web14.compaq.com/falco/detail.asp?FAQnum=FAQ2859

Wow. Thanks to Feo sending in this link that proves that some people simply shouldn't own a computer.

Then Pt would be out of business. :lol:

[st63z]

Sounds like John C. Dvorak talk (read his latest PC Mag column)...

And just as cranky :)

[bsoft]

That's almost as bad as one of my favorites (possibly apocryphal) about the person who was told to dial "nine eleven" (911) in case of an emergency, but couldn't find the "11" key on the phone. :roll:

For more computer moron stories, check out Computer Stupidities (http://www.rinkworks.com/stupid). And, yes, if you look in the Keyboard section, it says many people have called looking for the "Any" key. :lol:

Steve

Actually, that's not at all rediculous. In a crisis situation, it is often difficult to think clearly (panic sets in). Many people simply can not handle the stress and are unable to think.

When was the last time that you had to call "Nine Eleven" in a situation where time is crucial?

[st63z]

I don't understand, I've never heard of the 911 emergency number being referred to as anything other than "nine one one". Nine eleven is, of course, the 9/11...

[Ed Hansberry]

I don't understand, I've never heard of the 911 emergency number being referred to as anything other than "nine one one". Nine eleven is, of course, the 9/11...
FWIW, I have heard it referred to as nine-eleven. I hear nine-one-one more often though....

[Rob Alexander]

Actually, that's not at all rediculous. In a crisis situation, it is often difficult to think clearly (panic sets in). Many people simply can not handle the stress and are unable to think.

When was the last time that you had to call "Nine Eleven" in a situation where time is crucial?

That's really true. Some friends of ours (a couple) had a crisis involving a small fire a few years ago. One of them says, "Quick, call nine-one-one!" The other grabs the phone and replies, "Okay, what's the number?" I won't say which was the man and which was the woman... :D ...but neither one is stupid in real life. People just don't always respond well in emergencies.

Of course our friend has never lived that down, either! :lol:

[feo]

When I first saw that my first reaction was disbelief, but I thought it was funny. So I emailed it to a few people around me. I work in a cubicle environment, so you could hear the 'wave' of laughs as it was being read and forwarded. As I was on my way out to lunch, I overheard one person say 'I don't see what is so funny about it, I went through that...'
So that confirmed it and made it even funnier.
Jason said it was being a slow news day on the previous post, so I thought maybe you guys would enjoy it. It is Pocket PC related in a way, because if you notice they used the word 'handheld', so they may have had at least one iPaq user call. -- not me ok?, taht is not how I found it :wink:

[denivan]

Thank God for archiving ;) Just to proove you guys that this FAQ is real, it has existed since '99. I assume many people did call them for that back then. Can't really imagine that they get that call frequently now, but I guess the faq just got migrated and nobody cared to take it out.

http://web.archive.org/web/20001120160500/http://web14.compaq.com/falco/detail.asp?FAQnum=FAQ2859

[AhuhX]

We refer to these sorts of user calls at our Help Desk as

ID-10T errors....

Get it?

You can say it right back at the user...

"Oh that's just an ID-10T error...", and they'll nervously ask what can be done to alleviate the problem.

That way I never feel frustrated talking to our more challenged users... My only difficulty is suppressing the urge to crack up laughing at them.

[msprague]

ID-10T errors....
Get it?
Maybe I am an idiot or something but what is an ID-10T error? :razzing:

[Ken Mattern]

For most of my professional life I've worked customer support of some kind. Back in the days of DOS I used to have to have clients look for particular files. I'd get them to the C prompt and have them type dir *.*. They would usually respond with, "d-i-r s-p-a-c-e s-t-a-r d-o-t s-t-a-r".

One time I had a lady call to tell me that every time she logged off the IBM System 36 she had to log back on. I asked her what she meant and she said, when she took option 12 from the main menu to log off it gave her a log on screen, so she would log on, get to the main menu and enter option 12 to log off which would give her a log on screen...

Back in those days I taught a class called DIPEN which stood for the most frequently asked question of the era, "Do I Press Enter Now?"

I kid you not!

Ken

[Jimmy Dodd]

I used to work for a company that provided emissions monitoring software and hardware to electric power plants. Most of the guys using the software had never used a computer before, and the number of funny stories from our support department was nothing short of astounding. The software ran on Unix computers and, although it had a GUI interface for normal operations, trouble shooting was purely command line driven. Explaining Unix commands over a noisy telephone line to someone in an industrial setting could try the patience of any one. We quickly learned to be very specific: saying "press any key" was a sure fire way to generate dead silence on the other end of the line. "Press the space bar" became the standard instead. Don't even get me started on chaining together Unix commands with a "pipe." Vertical bar wasn't much better. You had to say "the key with the line going up and down, and it may be a broken line going up and down, but not the colon. That's two dots." "(" "{" and "[" were always fun, too. Verbally describing a regular expresion overe the phone is a recipe for disaster.

My favorite story was a situation in which a customer reported his monitor had become defective and he needed help shutting down the system "blind." Instead of walking him through it I asked for a little more info.

Me: What happened to the monitor?
Him: We had a power failure earlier and the monitor died. Now the UPS is beeping because its battery is getting low and I need to shut down the Unix box.
Me: You had a power failure...?
Him: Right, and I can't see the software to shutdown the system because the screen died.
Me: ...and the Unix box is on a backup battery?
Him (impatiently): Right. I know it's still running because I can see the hard drive lights flash occaisionaly.
Me: Where is the monitor plugged in?
Him: It's in the wall outlet. I unplugged it from the UPS because it drains the battery too quick.
Me (silently counting): 1...2...3...
Him (meekly): Oh. Never mind.

[Kemas]

Okay..... I have asked around our IT department... I work in an IT group for a large company, and low and behold every one of the techs told me that they regularly get questions like this... even today.

I don't get it..... Press Any Key... simple English. The "forward slash key" the, the "back slash key", the "Escape [ESC] key" I can understand those issues... they require a "little" knowledge of the keyboard and how they are referred to by a tech and the customer...... but "Any Key?" They have to be out to lunch to ask that question. I know my way around a computer, but I am not tech and can't tell you every part of a computer, or tear one apart and put it back together blindfolded.... This isn't talking over someone's head either..... It is just simply, plain enlish....

Press any key.

The "the" any key. (Then they should look for a key called "any.")

It is a sad statement on society at large that our ability to understand English has degraded this far and further prooves the intelligence of "mankind" has progressed as far as we might like to believe....

Truly sad.....

Okay... I've cooled down now..... hopefully none of these people have their finger on "The Button." Should we go to war.. they will probably look for the "Button" button.

[questionlp]

ID-10T errors....
Get it?
Maybe I am an idiot or something but what is an ID-10T error? :razzing:
ID-10T -> ID10T -> idiot

:?: :?: :?: :silly: :devilboy: